Mass Effect Vandread
by razer666L
Summary: Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy are in an alternate universe where human men and women were seperated completely and hostile towards each other. They will face a new struggle and purpose to defend humanity against a new threat.
1. Prologue

_Disclaimer: Mass Effect belongs to Bioware while Vandread belongs to Gonzo. I do not own them. I can't promise this story is good because this is my first time I write a fanfic. Constructive criticism and grammar nazi are appreciated. Someone who has great knowledge about ME and Vandread universe and techs are also appreciated as well. Flaming and negative comments are not allowed and will be ignored._

_This story sets several days after the Arrival event and before the beginning of Mass Effect 3. Some OCs and new techs (from ME) are included. There are also some surprises (and spoilers) as well._

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><p>Prologue<p>

It had been several days after John Shepard visited his old friend, Liara T'Soni who was the new Shadow Broker after Shepard had helped settle her old debt against the previous Broker several weeks before the suicide mission against the Collectors began. Commander John Shepard and his team had successfully defeated them, destroyed their base and the incomplete Human-Reaper along with their horrible experiments and technologies. To think about the Illusive Man asked Shepard to preserve the base both to use against the Reapers and and to "secure humanity's future against the Reapers and beyond", it was diabolical, ruthless and treason of the worst kind. There was no way Shepard will give that base to him.

There was a reason why Shepard had been visited Liara in her Lair. To find out regarding the reactions of the Batarian Hegemony after the death of more than 300,000 batarians in the Bahak System from their point of view. He didn't surprise of what he had found. Just like what Admiral Hackett had said, they want blood. Human blood that was. The batarian government and their people were angry about this incident and they really want to go to war against the Systems Alliance. The extranet had been filled with hundreds of millions of messages, blogs and media from the batarians. All of them flamed about "humanity should be purged from the rest of the galaxy" and all that stuff.

_"Humans are the sworn enemy of the whole batarian race! Mark my words that they shall be cleansed by the hellfire from the stars!" _

_"First they scrutinized and shunned us for our culture and now they want to shed our blood! By destroying our own star system! Those humans will never get away from this damnation!"_

_"Humanity shall be purged from the face of the galaxy, once and for all!"_

_"Death to the Alliance! Death to all humans!"_

Typical reactions from the batarians. Shepard knew he cannot let a war erupt while the Reapers were en route to the Milky Way galaxy to start another cycle of extinction against all sentient life. He still remembered the conversation between him and Harbinger – the Reaper leader during Shepard's attempt to collide the asteroid 157-Golgotha towards the Alpha Relay.

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><p><em>"Shepard, you have become an annoyance", Harbinger said. "You fight against inevitability. Dust struggling against cosmic winds. This seems a victory to you. A star system sacrificed. But even now, your greatest civilizations are doomed to fall. Your leaders will beg to serve us."<em>

_Shepard clenched his right fist in anger due to the Reaper's malevolent statement. "Maybe you're right. Maybe we can't win this. But we'll fight you regardless, just like we did Sovereign. Just like I'm doing now," Shepard said._

_"However 'insignificant' we might be, we will fight, we will sacrifice, and we will find a way. That's what humans do," he continued in absolute defiance to Harbinger._

_"Know this as you die in vain. Your time will come. Your species will fall. Prepare yourselves for the Arrival." _

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><p>That conversation with Harbinger had made Shepard aware one crucial point. The Reapers were one step closer to invade the galaxy. He have no time to waste. He needed to unite all races and civilizations of the galaxy to prepare for the upcoming Reaper invasion. But not before where he have to turn himself in and face trial on Earth for charges on genocide and (possibly by Shepard's opinion) collaboration with a terrorist organization a.k.a Cerberus. Even though he had severed the ties between Cerberus as well as the Illusive Man after the destruction of the Collector Base, he couldn't just go away that easily. Not after several months of doing missions for Cerberus.<p>

He was really thankful to Admiral Hackett for try to delay the trial but truthfully, he didn't know how or what to expect once on Earth. What kind of reactions that he would face from the public? How was he going to face the Alliance judges? What would be the outcome of the trial? Every minute, every hour had passed, Shepard always thought on how he was going face all of that matter in his head. It made him very anxious, for the first time of his life. But there was one thing that was always disturbed him every moment he thought about the trial.

How was Shepard going to face his family and the ones he love on Earth? How was he going to face his mother, Captain Hannah Shepard. His father, Rear Admiral James Shepard. His sister, Staff Lieutenant Jane Shepard of the Alliance Marine Corps. And last but not least his lover, Ashley Williams. That matter always made him difficult to sleep every day in the Normandy. When he told his problem about the trial, his family and his lover to his Yeoman, Kelly Chambers. This was what she had said:

_"Everything is going to be all right if only you have the confidence within yourself. The same confidence and bravery when you're fighting Saren, his Geth ally and Sovereign along with the Collectors, Commander." _

_"You are not a monster. We know who you are. We trust you, we are always support you, we are always stand beside you and we are always defend you. Regardless of what they accuse you, sir."_

Kelly was right. He had everybody that he trust, everybody that support him, stand beside him and defend him. He had Joker, EDI, the Normandy's crew, and his team members which were Miranda, Jacob, Garrus, Tali, Mordin, Thane, Samara, Kasumi, Zaeed, Jack, Legion, and Grunt. They were his trusted and loyal friends. They knew why he had no choice but to destroy the Alpha Relay. To prevent the imminent Reaper invasion. The thought that rest of the galaxy literally had minutes to spare, unprepared for the invasion, it was a close call. A _very _close call.

Afterwards, Shepard had ordered Joker to set a course towards the Sol System, where he had prepared himself to face the trial on Earth. But when the Normandy was en route towards their destination from the Hourglass Nebula, after visited Liara's _Lair, _Joker contacted Shepard who was in the Captain's Cabin through the ship's internal communication channel.

"_Hey, Commander, we receiving an incoming message from the Citadel, it is Councilor Anderson. From the looks of it, it is a video call and its sounds urgent_," Joker said.

"Very well, Joker," Shepard said as he walked towards his private terminal and accepted the video call. Councilor Anderson's face appeared on the once a model ships display, turned into a large holo-screen. Shepard moved a few steps back to get a full view.

"_Commander Shepard, we've got serious situation. I contact you because you are the only person who knows how to deal with this_," Anderson said. His tone, face and emotion present in front of Shepard hinted a dire situation at hands.

To be continued…..

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><p><em><span>Author's Note<span>:_

_So….errr… how was the first chapter? It's my first story, you know? I maybe take reference from other authors' fanfiction such as Freedom Guard (my opinion, one of the best author have ever seen and I respect him), Vault08 and erttheking._

_Be warned, right now it's a school holiday in my country and there is a possibility I'll update the second chapter next week (if I don't get myself busy with my homeworks). After the school holiday, the rest of the updates for this story might become slower because of school assignments. So please, be patient, alright?_

_Other than that, I need all the help I can get from you guys from correcting grammar to give additional knowledge and info that can keep this story running. Why? Maybe because I'm a perfectionist, I guess._

_By the way, there is a reason why I added Jane Shepard in the story and that she is John Shepard's sister. The reason is because of this one Mass Effect 2 meme that me and my friend saw in deviantART. Type the website address below:_

_http:/pen-gwyn. deviantart. com/art/ME2-Massive-Meme-158782666_

_Once you're there, read the meme. After that, find the name zxcv1911 (my friend's username) in the comments section below and read his comments. You'll see what I mean._

_Here is a little preview (or spoiler, I don't know which one is appropriate) of what is to come._

**Trailer:**

"Hey, you guys must be John's friends, right? I'm Staff Lieutenant Jane Shepard, Alliance Marine Corps. I'm his sister," Jane said after introduced herself.

Garrus then turn his head towards Commander Shepard. "Why you didn't tell us you have a sister, John?" Garrus asked him as several of John's team members began to look at him, each with a perplexed looks on their face. Except Tali where it is hard to see her face other than the glowing eyes through her visor.

Miranda looked as if she had anticipated this situation. This would mean that she knows about this before they meet John's sister. Probably because that she is or _was_ a Cerberus Officer and during her time the organization, she had every detail about Commander Shepard, including his own family.

Legion however…..not so surprising as well as he also had 'studied' Commander Shepard through various extranet sites regarding to him and some unencrypted along with encrypted Alliance files before Legion met him in the derelict Reaper.

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><p>"Before I'm going to introduce the man behind who created these new upgrades and techs, I'm giving you all a single warning; Do not and I repeat, DO NOT laugh at his last name. Got it?"<p>

Commander Shepard and his team members nodded in acknowledgement of that warning. All of them were wondering, what kind of the guy's last name they've could laugh about?

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><p>John and his teams cover themselves behind an obstacle from the continuous gunfire of their enemy. All people, including John, were very shocked of what kind of enemies they're facing right now. Garrus was the first one to spoke.<p>

"Since when these husks know how to duck and shoot!"

"And since when those husks have body armor and firearms!" Tali exclaimed in disbelief.

"Don't care! Shoot first, ask questions later!" Shepard ordered his teammates to shoot the gun-wielding husks in front of them.

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><p><em>Comments, critics and reviews must be constructive and helpful. They are most welcome while flames will be ignored and deleted the first they are caught.<em>

_See you guys on Chapter 2!_


	2. Missing Spectres

Chapter 1: Missing Spectres

"What kind of situation that you need me, sir?" Shepard asked.

"_A month ago, one of our Spectres, a turian named Hakron Phellos was investigating a team of top Citadel scientists and archaeologists that went missing when they were excavating and studying a newly found Prothean ruins and cities on planet Articon, in the Valonovia System of the Enkidu Sector_," Anderson explained.

_"Enkidu Sector...wasn't that a cluster that belongs to the Terminus Systems before the Citadel had purchased from them a hundred years ago? Not only that, it was bordered right next to the Serpent Nebula and the Nemean Abyss,"_ Shepard thought.

"_Other than that, the Citadel had sent a fleet that was supposed to secure the planet had lost radio contact to the Citadel. That fleet consisted of 2 dreadnoughts, 83 cruisers and 115 frigates. All of them equals to 200 ships_," Anderson added.

Shepard was surprised that it took that many ships to secure a planet with Prothean ruins. What those scientists had found must be very big. Probably big enough to change the course of galactic history, a big leap in technological development, and a chance to learn more about the Protheans.

"Why the Citadel sents many ships to that planet? Is it because the scientists have found something big, that it could bring a huge impact to the Citadel and the rest of the galaxy?" Shepard asked.

"_Indeed they were. The planet, Articon, is a cold, frozen planet with hundreds, maybe thousands of very intact ancient Prothean cities and ruins. The planet's cold climate helps preserve these ruins. We could find tones of information and technologies regarding the Protheans' history, culture or their weaponry that could have great use to the Citadel and the galactic society along with the Alliance as well_," Anderson answered Shepard's question.

"I'm guessing after that, something is wrong had happen to them, including Hakron as well. Am I correct?" Shepard said.

"_Correct. An hour before Hakron went MIA and lost contact with him, he reported that all Citadel warships that secured Articon had been annihilated. He found wreckages, only that belongs to the Citadel, with signs of a fierce battle had occurred, and no survivors. Not even a single lifepods_," Anderson said sadly.

"_When he had set foot on Articon, he hadn't found anybody included the scientists and the security forces at the dig site. He suspected they have been kidnapped. No traces of firefights, bullet holes and dead bodies. Nothing_. Very clean," Anderson said with a grim tone in his voice with an emphasis of that last words.

"Do you think the pirates or other organizations from the Terminus or the Nemean Abyss are responsible for this attack? The Enkidu Sector is a Citadel Space and they know that," Shepard stated.

"_No, we don't. Our operatives in the Terminus Systems and the Nemean Abyss have reported no sudden increase of activities in the systems, let alone within the Abyss ever since the discovery of the Prothean ruins on Articon. Our operatives have also stated that the pirate rings and other organizations didn't showed any interest about the discovery. Let alone about the huge presence of Citadel warships that were placed right next to their neighborhood_," Anderson replied.

"After Harkon got MIA, did the Council have sent other Spectres to find him?"

"_We did, and this is where it gets ugly. We have sent a Spectre, an asari named Keirana Vassi, one of our best, to find him on Articon but we've suddenly lost contact with her the moment she set foot on that planet. Then we've sent in another Spectre to find her but we also have lost contact to him. Then we have sent in another, and another, AND another Spectre to find those missing Spectres. All of them went disappear and we don't have any words from them_," Anderson stated.

"How many Spectres that were disappeared on Articon?"

"_EIGHT of them, Shepard_," Anderson answered grimly.

Shepard's eyes went wide open and shocked to hear that the Citadel had lost eight Spectres, all eight of them within a month. Something definitely had gone wrong with the excavation. Are those Spectres were kidnapped by Cerberus? _"No way. Not until they get past through the Citadel Fleet and the security forces stationed on the ground,"_ Shepard thought and dismissed that fact.

But what about the Collectors? They had the capabilities that were necessary to do all of that. But there was a problem, all of the Collectors were killed after Shepard and his team have destroyed the Collector Base a year ago. The Geth or the most appropriate, the _Heretic _Geth however, were not responsible to this incident, not after Legion, Tali and Shepard himself have boarded the Heretic Station and rewrited every Heretic Geth in the galaxy.

_"So somebody or something that are not from the Terminus, Cerberus, Collectors and the Geth that have destroyed the entire Citadel fleet, kidnapped (maybe) the scientists, archaeologists and the whole security forces along those Spectres with no trace at all. If this has got to do with Reapers, I'm going to investigate this matter," S_hepard thought.

"_But Shepard, the main reason why I called you is that the last eight of the Spectres that have disappeared, a salarian named Kalel Opothis had managed to sent a video transmission to us. It recorded the last minutes before Kalel and his people have lost contact with us. You're the only person who is an expert to handle this matter. I'm showing you the video now_," Anderson said as another screen appeared on the right side of the holo-screen, depicted the salarian's last moments.

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><p><em>The video depicted in a first person view where Kalel and his people are involved in a brutal firefight inside what looks like a massive artificial cavern with hints of Prothean design. The sounds of gunfire come from both Kalel's people and the unknown assailants that was covered within the darkness at the end of the cavern echoes all around the cavern. But Shepard had heard some kind of gunfire that was far familiar to him from the video. It comes from the unknown assailants.<em>

_"_Wait, that gunfire from the assailants. I think I've heard it before..._," Shepard thought._

_Kalel and his team consisted of three turians, two asari, three salarians and a krogan are ducked into cover behind a rows of crates while at the same time tried to fend off the unknown assailants' attack. A turian began to shoot the enemies right in front of him using his assault rifle. Suddenly, he was shot through his head and his body fell, rear first to the ground._

_"Damn it, they've got Jorbas!" a turian exclaimed._

_"What the hell are these things! We need to get out of here now!" an asari shouted with a demanding tone._

_"Damn it! Alright, people! We're pulling back to the shuttle. LETS GO!" a salarian ordered. _

_Shepard had guessed the voice of the salarian who gave the order must be Kalel as his face is the only one that is not depicted in the video. After he had gave the order to retreat, all of his people (probably mercs) started to break their cover and ran-and-gun toward their shuttle._

_"Damn it, this is not what we're paid for!" a salarian shouted while ran-and-gun towards his assailants in front of him._

_"SHUT UP! You called yourself a professional merc! You're not worthy of th...ARRRGHHH!," a krogan tried to finish his sentence whiles shooting with his shotgun but he couldn't when something that looks like a pair of hands grabs the krogan's legs and dragged him directly into the hole at the lower walls of the cavern._

_"Ahh! I'm outta here!" an asari shouted out of dread after she saw something dragged their krogan counterpart. She then ran hastily towards the exit, ignored the bullets that have past around her. But suddenly, a focused beam of light in bright yellow color, probably a directed-energy weapon, hitted the asari on her back. She then quickly collapsed, face first to the floor._

_"By the Goddess, XONA!" another asari shouted in griefs after she had saw her asari counterpart died in front her eyes, by get shot from the back. The asari gritted her teeth in anger. Shimmering blue aura of biotics start to manifesting around her. She then turn her body towards in front of the assailants and prepare to give a powerful biotic attack at them._

_"DIE YOU BASTARDS!" the asari shouted in anger and started to threw two balls of purple lights at the assailants within the darkness at the end of the cavern from both of her hands. Suddenly, a ball of blood-redness light appeared from the darkness and it slammed into her torso, and all of her upper body just simply exploded, sended chunks of flesh and blood all over the place as the lower parts of the asari body or what has left of her; namely the abdomen, the waists and both of the legs that are still intact, fell to the ground._

_"BY THE SPIRITS!" a turian shouted as he is horrified of what he had just seen._

_The video started to shifts toward a salarian face in pale blue color tone. Shepard began to learned that salarian in front of him must be the Spectre; Kalel. "This Spectre Kalel to the Council! If you watch all that had happens through this video, do not, I repeat DO NOT send another people to this planet! It's a death trap! It's a death_..._What the hell!" the video suddenly turns around and showed a figure that looks so...synthetic with blue circuit lines all over the body. _

_The head of the figure looks as if in the state of decay and its face looks like a skull with some facial flesh still embedded on its face with a pair of glowing blue eyes. That face reminded Shepard of a Scion, a type of husk which he and his team had fought them on Horizon, in the Collector Cruiser, the derelict Reaper and inside the Collector Base. _

_That figure started to growl loudly and began raises its right arm that have five proportionately thick fingers, each tipped with talons and strike the Spectre. Leaving the video to show nothing but static in front of Shepard._

_Commander Shepard at that time only thought of one thing after saw that footage: "_Uh-oh_."_

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><p>"<em>That is the reason why I called you, Shepard. You are the only person who have a lot of experience fighting these things, these husks. If what you have told me several years ago is true, then these husks must be created from the dragon's teeth, a Reaper technology<em>," Anderson stated.

"Sir, that gunfire from the unknown assailants that have attacked Kalel's team, I recognize it. Those assailants are using Collector Assault Rifles, and the asari that got hit by an energy beam; she was killed by a Collector Particle Beam. If my hunch is correct, then we're dealing with the Collectors on Articon, probably remnants of them that are not from the Collector Base," Shepard said.

Anderson was surprised to hear that kind of fact from him, and Shepard can tell all that from his face in the holo-screen. "_Are you sure about this, Shepard_?" he asked.

"I'm one hundred percent sure, sir. I have fought them in Horizon, in the Collector Cruiser, the derelict Reaper and inside the Collector Base," Shepard replied confidently and truthfully.

"_Derelict Reaper? Where did you...Never mind that_," Anderson shooked his head lightly. "_Can you investigate this incident for us, for the Council, Shepard? You're the only person we could count onto. We can't risk to send another Spectre that doesn't have the knowledge and experience to face this situation_," Anderson said in a similar manner to most requests where Shepard had got, and there was no hint of desperation in the human councilor's voice.

"Don't worry about it, sir. I'll make this as a high priority assignment. Those people who lost their lives by these _things_, I'll make sure they will be dealt with until they are gone. Is there anything I should know?"

"_Yes, there's more. Yesterday, one of our Alliance carrier that was making a patrol in the Enkidu Sector have responded a distress signal that was coming from Articon. When the carrier was within the orbit, they've managed to send a message to Arcturus Station about their ship suddenly shuts down as the engines along with the mass effect core became disabled. They've lost contact to the ship afterwards_," Anderson paused for a moment, as if to consider how to phrase the next few sentences.

"_Shepard, that carrier..., is the SSV Orizaba. The one that your mother commands_," Anderson said in a saddened voice.

Shepard's face began to show signs of fear, sadness and concern after he heard the words that came from Anderson's mouth. _"What! My mother? She was there?"_ Shepard thought. To thought about his own mother was in the grasps of the Collectors. _"No! Not my mother! Not her!"_

"_The Alliance Navy have sent a stealth frigate, the SSV Leyte Gulf, to investigate this matter one hour after the Orizaba has lost contact to Arcturus Station. But the Leyte Gulf was also gone out of contact once they've enter Articon's planetary orbit_," Anderson added.

"I know this is very hard for you, Shepard. I'm sorry. I'm very sorry," Anderson said in a low, concerned and comforting tone.

"No, it's all right, sir. I'll get through with this," Shepard said calmly.

_"Very well. Before you go to the Enkidu Sector, you must immediately make a rendezvous at Arcturus Station. Once you're there, you will be given a briefing by an Alliance officer, some new gears and techs along some people from the Alliance military for this mission_," Anderson said in an informative tone.

"Yes sir," Shepard nodded in acknowledgement.

"_I'll upload the coordinates where the Orizaba and the Leyte Gulf last reported. If this incident has got to do with the Reapers, just like what Hackett had told me before, please be careful. Godspeed, Shepard. Anderson out_."

Investigate the missing scientists, Spectres, and now the two Alliance ships. Her mother was in one of those ships. And now with the possibilty that some Collectors that were not from the Collector Base were still alive. Things never got easier to Shepard. He then contacted Joker through the intercom.

"Joker, set a course to Arcturus Station. On the double, mister."

"_Aye aye, Commander. Plotting a course to Arcturus Station. ETA 2 hours_."

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><p><em>Author's Note:<em>

_Uh-oh, things just got really worse doesn't it? Anyway, do you guys know how to put the website address in the page because remember when I've said about new techs in the Prologue? The picture or the visualization concept of the new techs and gears that Shepard and his team going to have are actually in some of those website that I want to "copy and paste" it's address to the fic. To let you guys know what will be the new techs and gears looked like in the story, ya know? Hope you guys can help me with this problem._

_Constructive criticism and grammar nazi are appreciated. Someone who has great knowledge about ME and Vandread universe and techs or anything related to them are also appreciated as well. Flaming and negative comments are not allowed, will be ignored and deleted._


	3. The Rendezvous

Chapter 2: The Rendezvous

In the red giant star system of Arcturus, lie several gas giant planets and an asteroid belt orbited around the star that to this current day, was the third brightest star in the night sky of Earth, the homeworld of humanity. Among all the natural heavenly bodies that orbited around Arcturus, the red giant in turn had several mass relays in close proximity, which enabled mankind's rapid expansion into the stars of the Milky Way galaxy.

Suddenly, an object comes out from one of these relays. The object, was a starship. That starship, was the Normandy SR-2. The stealth frigate that was once belonged to Cerberus, now belonged to Commander John Shepard after he had severed the relationships with them.

"_We have jumped out from the Arcturus 5 Relay, Commander. We'll be arriving at Arcturus Station only a few minutes away_," Joker informed Shepard who was at the CIC, stand in front of the galaxy map, through the intercom.

"Roger that, Joker," Shepard replied in acknowledgement.

_[A/N: Since Mass Effect and Bioware didn't stated the full detail about Arcturus System and its planets, I decided to make it my own in this story. Please, don't flame me about it.]_

The Normandy SR-2 accelerated from the mass relay and in a short time, it passed through the four gas giants of Leto, Doris, Galatea and Tethys along the asteroid belts that revolved around the star. After it had passed through those celestial bodies, for the first time in a year after it was built by Cerberus, the Normandy SR-2 had arrived at Arcturus Station; the capital of the Systems Alliance and the headquarters of the Alliance Navy.

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><p>Arcturus Station, a five kilometer diameter Stanford Torus-type space station that was trailed at the Lagrange point (L5) at the gas giant Themis, the first planet that was circled around the Goldilocks Zone (the habitable zone) of the red giant star Arcturus. The station also housed the Alliance's Fifth Fleet which was too known as the Arcturus Fleet and commanded by Admiral Steven Hackett, one of the few people that Shepard had faith in other than Councilor David Anderson and his teammates along the crew of Normandy SR-2.<p>

Commander Shepard with his N7 armor along with Miranda Lawson who wore her usual tight, white and black colored Cerberus outfit, walked towards the cockpit area and stood behind the pilot's seat, to watch the space station in close view. What they saw from the cockpit, there are many ships, possibly civilian passenger cruisers and merchant ships, came in and out from the space station. When the three of them looked at the station and the surroundings in silence, Joker was the first person who broke that silence.

"*_Sigh*_, home sweet home," he said while smirking. Commander Shepard won't deny that as Joker was indeed spent his early life on Arcturus Station because of his mother's job there as a civilian contractor. As the Normandy started to approached towards the station and fly through hundreds of Alliance warships that were protecting it, something from those group of warships had caught the attention of the Normandy's pilot.

"What the hell are those?" Joker exclaimed in surprise while pointed at something in front of him. Shepard and Miranda looked in front of the view screen where Joker had pointed at and what they saw also surprised them both as well.

What they saw in front of them are five huge, flat-shaped and long warships that are not any kind of ships that any of them inside the cockpit were familiar with. More than that, they're looked just like a sword. But the most interesting was the names that were stamped on the hull of those each five warships. Those names are Sun Tzu, Hannibal Barca, Julius Caesar, Ieyasu Tokugawa and Khalid ibn al-Walid. Which indicate these ships were named for historical military commanders and generals in Earth's history. Miranda was the first one to speak.

_[A/N: These vessels are actually based on the Hiigaran Battlecruiser from the game Homeworld 2, by Relic Entertainment. But there are differences between these vessels and the ones in this story such as the vessels in this story don't have the Heavy Ion Cannon turrets as they were replaced by a fully armored bridge on the top section of the vessel where the Heavy Ion Cannon turrets was once placed. Moreover, this vessel also don't have the 'extra part' from the right section (from the front view point) of the vessel.]_

"EDI, what are those ships am I looking at?"

EDI took five seconds to reply Miranda's question, longer than the usual, "Those warships inside the Fifth Fleet are actually the newly-built Alliance battlecruisers, built and developed in secrecy by the Systems Alliance. This information was once classified as top secret Level 4 before the human race gain a seat in the Council and quite surprisingly, they were given to me _willingly_ by the battlecruisers' highly advanced VIs."

Shepard was a little bit surprised to hear that from the AI. No wonder from all of his entire life, he had never seen these ships at all as EDI had explained it earlier, they were built in secrecy and was once classified as top secret by the Alliance. From the look of these battlecruisers, each of them seems had more than enough firepower than the Destiny Ascension.

"What is the size of these battlecruisers, EDI?" Shepard asked.

"From what I can gather from the information, it is of an Alliance dreadnought-class length. I estimated at least 1250 meters. Almost equal to the Destiny Ascension or the Collector Cruiser," EDI told.

"What about the battlecruisers' armament? Does that also included in the _top secret information_?" Miranda asked EDI while putting emphasis on the three last words from her sentence.

"Primary armaments of the Alliance battlecruisers were the two main Mass Accelerator Cannons, located at the vessels' two prongs. However, these mass accelerators are actually very powerful than the Destiny Ascension or any other dreadnoughts in the galaxy as they are capable of accelerating one fifteen-ton tungsten ferric or titanium slugs to a velocity of 5000 km/s every five seconds. Each slug has the kinetic energy of about 100 petajoules or 23.9 megatons of TNT," EDI informed her. And that piece of information gave by the AI has made three people in the cockpit area to gasp a bit.

_[A/N: If you guys wants to know how heavy a single fifteen-ton slug is, then check this picture; http:/img1. topfreebiz. com/o2010-8/15-Ton-Crawler-Excavator-2455734903. Jpg]_

"ARE YOU SERIOUS, EDI!" Joker exclaimed in pure shock after heard it from the AI. "If you're start to shitting me about this, then you're starting to speak like HAL now!"

"No, Jeff. I am not _shitting _you," EDI replied to him in a monotone voice and to everyone's surprise, this was the first time that they've heard EDI potty-mouthed back at Joker. And that had caused him to silence immediately. EDI added another piece of information about the battlecruisers' armaments.

"The Alliance battlecruisers' secondary armaments are the 4x2 HELL Cannon turrets, each two of them located transversely at both topside and underside forward section of the hull. 'HELL' is an acronym of High Energy Linear Laser. They are actually the heavy offensive weapons version of the GARDIAN Laser systems and have a maximum firing range from 10 to 15 kilometers.

Other additional armaments included fifty lateral Mass Accelerator Cannons; twenty five for starboard section and another twenty five for port section of the hull, each are capable of firing a one and a half-ton slug to a velocity of 4700 km/s every three seconds along with 330 Rama Anti-Ship Hypersonic Missiles, each is the size of Earth's 21st-century UGM-133 Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile and it also carried greater payload capacity of random and unstable mass effect field core. In which they're similar in comparison to standard disruptor torpedoes only much faster, larger and heavily armored with layers of carbon nano-tubes. For the defensive purposes, these battlecruisers' have 40x2 Exemplar CIWS Mass Accelerator Rotary Cannons. Each of these CIWS also has one GARDIAN Laser turrets as well."

Shepard and the others shook their heads in disbelief after hearing tons of information about the battlecruisers' weaponries from EDI. _"Huh, talk about overkill. If the Council had heard about this (or they're already have and except for Anderson), total frantic of fear from those three might happen, the media will go frenzy about it and the Alliance might get severe consequences," _Shepard thought.

But there were questions left unanswered: _Who is the person gave the idea to build battlecruisers in secrecy,_ _despite the risks and implications from the Council? Where is the main construction site of these vessels? How many battlecruisers that are still out there?_ _And how did they managed to developed a mass accelerator that can fire a fifteen-ton slug?_

But Shepard mentally shrugged off those questions. These are Alliance matters that involved several people in high-ranking positions in the government and the military. He knew that he couldn't voice out that particular matter to those type of people. They had built weapons and other stuffs in secrecy with one purpose in their mind: to protect the Alliance and its citizens. Well at least they weren't built those stuffs in accordance with Cerberus' _standards_.

After the Normandy had passed through those warships, Joker then started to communicate with the Arcturus control for docking request. As soon as they got the clearance from the station, the Normandy docked at one the station's docking bay. Commander Shepard then announced the whole crew of the ship through the intercom. They were informed that the crew were given the permission to have shore leave to visit the station but were to report back to the ship once they've got the message. Shepard also had informed to all his team members to follow him into the station for the briefing of the mission that will be given by an Alliance officer and they'll send some people from the Alliance military to the Normandy for this mission.

Right after his announcement, Shepard turned his attention towards the Normandy's pilot, who had spent his early life on the station.

"You don't want to go out there, Joker?" Shepard asked while pointed his thumb to the airlock. "It's your home, remember?"

Joker's seat started to rotate towards behind and stopped in front of Shepard face to face. Joker then spoke, "Nah, don't worry about it, Commander. Besides, if you, me and everybody in this ship that have legs left this ship, who's gonna watch over EDI?"

"Don't worry about me, Jeff. I myself can monitor and take good care of the Normandy while you're left," EDI replied.

"Oh yeah? How 'bout when you have once told me that I'm _'directly responsible for your well-being'_ stuff? And besides, there is nothing more relaxing and tranquil than the Normandy's low humming sound. Also, I'm kinda more comfortable with seating on this leather seat than walking," Joker responded while rubbed his body and shoulders against the seat, showed signs of being pleasant.

"Alright, fine. But I hope EDI will be okay with you while you were watching porn vids and starts to _satisfy_ yourself in front of her," Shepard grinned.

"HEYYY! I did not AND never _satisfy _myself in front EDI," Joker tried to counter Shepard's dirty jokes.

"Yes you did, Jeff. You have done _that_ once in the men's restroom. There is a tiny camera inside which allowed me to monitor every crewmate that have went inside the restroom. And I still have the video file about Joker's in my archive," EDI explained in her usual monotone voice.

Joker's eyes went wide open in shock after EDI had claimed that she had the video of him doing that _act_ in the men's restroom. Shepard however, only raised his left eyebrow in curiosity.

"WHAAT!" Joker exclaimed in horror.

"That is a joke."

* * *

><p>After his (humorous) dialogue with Joker and EDI (which Joker had himself got owned by her), Shepard and Miranda were the first to exit out from the Normandy. What Shepard didn't expect after he got out was that the docking area looks kind of crowded with workers in jumpsuits and some soldiers with some kind a new type of body armor that they've worn. Everybody in the docking area looked very busy doing their own works. "<em>I have visited Arcturus Station before and it never got this crowded.<em>" Shepard thought.

_[A/N: Those soldiers that Shepard had saw before, are not actually 'soldiers'. He and some of the team members will be very surprise once they've found out (that includes y'all out there).]_

After Shepard and Miranda walked out from the airlock, all Shepard's other team members went out from the Normandy as well. Some of the people in Shepard's group which are Tali, Garrus and Jacob; each have a surprised looks on their face after they've saw the condition at the docking area. The three of them expressed their opinions about the state of the place that they are stand on.

"It looked so crowded. Which reminds of me of my people that had lived inside our ships with limited and cramped space in the Fleet," Tali remarked.

"It kinda reminds me of Omega," Garrus stated.

"Wow. I've never seen so many people in a docking area," Jacob thought loudly.

Miranda began walked towards Shepard from behind. "So, Shepard. We're here. What are we going to do now?" Miranda asked.

"We'll wait here at the docks. Someone will come here and lead us to a certain Alliance officer. My guess is that he or she is a high-ranking one, a captain or an admiral," Shepard replied.

"Who? Admiral Hackett?" Jacob quickly asked.

Shepard shook his head in disagreement. He knew that Admiral Hackett was actually on Earth as he tried to delay his trial regarded the previous incident in the Bahak System. Which means; somebody from the higher-ranking position in the Alliance military will give the briefing of the mission to him and his team instead of Admiral Hackett.

"I don't know, Jacob. I don't think it's him. But I hoped it's not Rear Admiral Mikhailovich. That's for sure," Shepard remembered the first time he met the rear admiral when he performed a surprise inspection of the previous Normandy. The Rear Admiral at that time reminded Shepard of the pro-human Ambassador Udina; shrewd and pragmatic politician but awful, hypocrite, selfish and idiot person. But just like Anderson had said before, he got his uses in politics.

Suddenly, one of those soldiers at the far side of the dock turned his head around and spotted Shepard and his team. The soldier then started walked towards them. As Shepard and his team waited someone to pick them up, Grunt started to spoke.

"Battlemaster, this waiting makes me hungry. Can't we go somewhere else on this place I can eat?" the krogan asked.

"Bloody hell, Grunt!" Zaeed said while annoyed by Grunt's statement. "We've just waited around and stand here for five minutes! You're already ate at the ship's mess-hall before we're arrived here. You and your T-Rex-like belly, Grunt."

Grunt seems irritated by the old merc's comments about him. "Why won't you just shut up and mind your own business before I'll crush all your bones with my own bare hands," Grunt growled while threatened Zaeed by showed his right hand and clenched his fingers into a fist.

Zaeed Massani, the galaxy's most notorious and feared bounty hunter and mercenary soldier, didn't seem felt threatened an inch by Grunt's menacing words. "OR, why don't _you_ just shut up before I'll cut off your throat with my own serrated knife that I got right here," Zaeed replied while patted his left thigh that had a knife strapped to his thigh plate. "It is specially made for killing krogans like you."

Shepard turned his head backward, towards both of the bickering persons. He had resolved conflicts and arguments like this before. Just like where both Miranda and Jack had a fight in the Normandy's Executive Officer's Office along with the conflict between Tali and Legion in the AI Core. He still remembered Joker's last words after he had informed him about the fight between the (was once) agent for Cerberus and the convict who had a tormented past history with them. _"Take_ _pictures"_, Joker said at that time.

"That's enough, both of you!" the commander said in a raised and commanding tone.

"HE STARTED IT!" both the merc and the krogan exclaimed simultaneously while point a finger towards each other.

"Commander John Shepard?" a male voice came from behind him but strangely, in an electronic tone.

He turned around and saw a fully armed soldier wore an unfamiliar but looked newly-designed body armor in white and black color with a tightly sealed helmet that has four small, round-shaped eyepieces in bright white color. The soldier's helmet and the eyepieces almost reminded of the commander the type of the helmets that was used by some humans, batarians and asari mercenaries in the Blue Suns and the Eclipse.

_[That soldier's armor and helmet are kinda like this one; only in white and black color, just like the LOKI mech: http:/madeinjapan1988. deviantart. com/gallery/#/d3fwzv4 (the soldier's armor is actually based on the one with the orange color)]_

"Are you the escort for us?" Shepard asked.

"Absolutely," the soldier replied. "Please follow me to the briefing room. It is not far from here," the soldier said with another electronic tone as he took the lead while Shepard and his whole team followed suit to the room. Shepard was kind of confused whether the soldier in front of him was a human or a mech after the soldier spoke to him as if in a computerized voice.

As they have walked through some huge corridors and hallways; larger than the one at Zakera Wards on the Citadel, many people included the civilians and the military personnel have stopped their works and activities as they watched at Shepard's multi-species group. Some of the people there are quite surprise as they have saw a krogan and a geth have walked past in front of them in Arcturus Station. But the one that got most of the attention was Commander Shepard himself. They watched in awe and excitement, some of them had shed in tears of joy as the most well known human in the galaxy; the Defender of Elysium; the Liberator of Eden Prime; the first human Spectre and the Hero of the Citadel has back from the dead and that person had walked past in front of their eyes.

It's been a while after they have walked for some time and Shepard had his mind focused on the soldier in front of him. He still wondering whether the _guy_ was human or a mech. But that would soon change as Shepard began to ask the soldier. "Excuse me. Do you mind if I ask you a…personal question?"

The soldier's head turned around a bit and faced the commander while walked on the corridor. "Of course. What is it do you want to ask?" the soldier asked Shepard's question.

"Are _you_ a human or a mech?" Shepard bluntly asked.

"I am not a human nor an organic. I am an Alliance-built Special Model 800-Series THOR Multi-Purpose Mechanical and Synthetic Unit. Or in a short version, the SM-800 THOR mech," the mech answered Shepard's question. "But you can call me Mac."

Shepard and several people in the group were surprised and had their eyes wide open a bit after discovered the soldier in front of them was actually a mech. Most importantly, that mech had just called itself (or himself) 'Mac' in front of everybody in the group. Garrus was the first one to spoke.

"Wait, _Mac_? Did you made yourself your own name?" he asked.

"No. It is my creators; the scientists and the engineers in Arcturus Station that had named me 'Mac'," the mech answered.

"Are you a VI or an AI?" Tali nervously asked. She had a good reason to ask that kind of question, considering the consequences that the Alliance will have if they have AIs in this station and the quarians' past history with the geth. Except EDI and Legion where she's now felt comfortable a bit with them after the suicide mission.

"I am a VI. Me and other THOR mechs are made out of multiple highly sophisticated program and software that are putted into a single miniaturized semi-quantum supercomputer that were specially made for virtual intelligences like us, which is known as a 'red box'. Our programming has a 'bit' of independence, more than any normal VI. Standard VIs are typically work only within the confines of their programming such as they were used for tour guides, manage sophisticated lab and database work or to process status reports in the military.

But since the THOR mech's virtual intelligence programming are far sophisticated than our normal counterparts, we are able to formulate and process complex data and information at a higher level and speed than normal VI. To avoid hacking our programs to be overridden and turned upon our creators from outside sources, we have been installed multiple and self-adaptive semi-quantum firewalls to avoid that possibility. You can say that we; the THOR mechs, are _advanced_ virtual intelligences but for all the functions and capabilities that we can make, a THOR VI is much closer to an AI," Mac explained.

Tali and some of the team gasped a bit after listened to Mac's explanation about their advanced VI had more freedom and capabilities than normal VIs. So technically, they're almost the same as an AI. Legion flicked its plates into an inquisitive expression and asked, "But the THORs are still considered to be VIs, are we correct?"

"Yes it is. That is because we have the limited yet advanced capabilities. Although limited, THOR VIs are capable to do various related tasks such as in engineering, electronics, construction, sociology and psychology, medical and surgery, complex military tactics, battlefield intelligence, computer hacking and such that are only restricted in our mentioned programming. That is why THORs are still considered as VI. Nevertheless, we're also had the ability to process and formulate our own ideas and opinions that are related to the present conditions, make inquiries and questioning our creators' works or motives without sacrificing the moral values and ethics that were included in our programming," Mac informed.

All of the tech-savvy members in Shepard's group (except Legion and Miranda) gave a respective "Whoa" after they have listened about the THORs advanced VI capabilities that are far exceeded than the normal and standard ones from the THOR mech.

After a long explanation from their escort-who-was-a-soldier-turned-out-to-be-a-mech named Mac, they've turned around a corner and arrived what had looked like to be a high security complex as Shepard and his team noticed that there were a lot of heavily armed security guards and Alliance officers walked around complex. After Mac had got the clearance to proceed within the complex through passive communication channel to the Arcturus's security control center, the group started walk towards a door guarded by three _people_; two Alliance security personnel, each stand beside the door and a THOR mech which was similar to the escort, stood at the center.

The group then stopped in front of the door.

"Please proceed inside the briefing room, a top Alliance officer is waiting for all of you," said the THOR mech who guarded the door.

The room that they have entered was apparently three times the size of the Normandy SR-2's Communications Room and it had a single large, rectangular window located at the end of the room. The whole room was dominated by large rectangular conference table which quite surprisingly, looked like a traditional transitional paneled table made out of tough and high quality hardwood. "Someone here likes old school stuff," Miranda commented. The conference room also had bright white lighting that illuminates around it with several chairs around the table. One of them seems quite big and strong enough to fit and withstand Grunt's size along with his sheer weight.

_[The wooden conference table is similar to this one: http:/www. ambiencedore. com/images/Conference08ADD/transitional_paneled__wood. jpg]__

At the end of the room by the window, there was a man in a blue Alliance uniform stood facing the window which they had assumed was a high-ranking officer. They can't see face of the officer, only his backs. Commander Shepard then walked around the left side room and approached the officer.

Before Shepard had approached him, the Alliance officer turned his head towards Shepard and showed an old, wrinkled face, probably in the late-50s with a bald head and with a pair of blue eyes. He stood rigid as a highly-disciplined military officer.

"Oh, hello son. It's really good to see you again," the officer said with a calm voice and he looked delighted when he saw the commander's face.

Commander Shepard's eyebrows along his eyes were respectively raised and slightly wide open in surprise after he saw the old man's face.

"Dad?"

* * *

><p><em><span>Author's Note<span>: _

_Yaayyy! Commander Shepard met his dad! By the way, I imagined the looks of Shepard's father as Ed Harris in this story. Also, there are some changes in some of the team members' appearance namely Jack, Tali and Thane. The three of them wore outfits from the Mass Effect 2 Alternate Appearance Pack DLC but also with some changes as well._

_Jack wore the new bikers outfit from the DLC but without those ugly and ridiculous glasses. She also wore the same long fingerless lace gloves on her left arm just like the one on her right arm. Tali wore the same new outfit from the DLC only except the color of the visor which I changed them to the default one because her visor from the DLC only makes it harder to see her glowing eyes. Thane also wore the new outfit from the DLC only without those shades as well. For God sakes, those glasses makes me so irritating!_

_Also, the part where Commander Shepard and the Normandy suddenly got themselves in Vandread universe is actually three chapters away. It was supposed to be two chapters but I had no choice because right now, the school holiday in my country is almost over and I had to reduce the time to finish this chapter. Sorry guys (bow). Moreover, it is because of my parents who accused me of playing computer games while actually I was busying myself to write this story. If I was playing, the speaker would give off loud sound effects like "BOOOM!", "BRRRRR!" and "BANG! BANG! BANG!" and stuffs. But NOOOOOOO. They're still accused me!_

_After the school holiday, the rest of the update for this story will become much slower than before. Please, be patient alright guys? :)_


	4. Charlie Charlie Part I

_Author's Note: Previously in the end of Chapter 2, Commander Shepard had met his father in Arcturus Station. Meaning that from this chapter, the Commander will be called by his first name, not the last name to avoid confusion. _

_**By the way, if all you saw an asterisk (*) in some sentences, it means: See below at the Author's Note section.**_

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: Charlie Charlie Part 1<p>

"What's the matter, son? You looked liked you've seen a ghost," the Rear Admiral asked as he wondered the cause of John's streaked expression immediately after he had turned his face towards his son.

The N7 Commander almost speechless after he saw his own father face-to-face because he didn't know that his father; Rear Admiral James Shepard, was the one who was going to brief him and the team for the mission, let alone after several years of not seeing between each other. He hadn't heard any word from him since his enrolment to become an Alliance Special Forces operative after his courageous acts against huge bands of pirates and slavers that attacked Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz that earned him the Star of Terra.

John had known a lot about his father, other than his cordial and gregarious personality,who had made a name for himself during Operation Turbocharge; a codename for a major Alliance Navy/Marine Corps/Special Forces joint operation to assault an independent human colony of South West in the Nirvana System of the Skyllian Verge, right next to the border of the Terminus Systems that was invaded by a large band of pirates in 2179. The colony was named by the human inhabitants where many of them were of American descent, specifically the southern and southwest states of the former United States of America.

A week before the military operation had begun; the South West's inhabitants of 32 million humans had decided to join the Systems Alliance after they had heard of a successful military operation in the Raid of Torfan carried out by the Alliance a year earlier. The Alliance accepted their inclusion and due to the planet's strategic location as a perfect chokepoint and fortress with substantial amounts of minerals to prevent any pirate and slaver ships from coming in and out from the Terminus Systems, the Alliance had decided to bring in a large force of 72 warships and 885,000 of ground troops along with several teams of Alliance Special Forces to secure and reinforce the Alliance authority and presence on South West along the entire Nirvana System.

Several pirate leaders and batarian warlords in the Terminus had heard about the Alliance's intention to expand their influence and military to the Nirvana System and the inhabitant's decision to join the Alliance which would further suppress their entire piracy campaigns. Still revengeful and bitter to the failure of the Blitz and the Alliance's raid on Torfan, they had decided to quickly mobilize their forces to invade and capture South West before the Alliance's arrival. The attack was brutal. Tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children were systematically massacred by the invaders in the first six hours, driven with anger and hatred. The inhabitants were poorly armed and they had almost nothing to defend themselves due to constant raids upon the said planet by pirates since it was first colonized in 2160 which hampered them to attain large supplies of proper weapons.

When the Alliance forces that were on route to the Nirvana System had been informed about the situation, several hours after the initial attack, they promptly planned a military operation and planetary assault to retake the planet and drive out the pirates from the star system permanently. After several hours of careful planning of choosing the most appropriate strategies and tactics through up-to-date intelligences and using the experience from the First Contact War and Skyllian Blitz, they had successfully laid out Operation Turbocharge that were placed under the command of John's father, James Shepard, who was the Captain of the cruiser SSV Detroit. The plan was to take out the pirate ships that was orbiting around South West by surprise and leaving them no room to escape. Once they had regained control of the orbit, they would launch a direct rapid orbital assault with sheer numbers of M35 Mako IFVs that were air-dropped from frigates or large dropships, and ground troops deployed to the battlefield with numerous amounts of Kodiak Drop Shuttles, supported with fighters and Mantis gunships in great quantity.

The entire operation was a complete success, all 120 pirate ships were annihilated in a single attack without any casualties from the Alliance Navy. After a week of intense fighting from both sides, the whole pirate group on South West had surrendered after suffering massive death tolls in the thousands while the Alliance forces had suffered minimal casualties only due to the element of surprise and with the support of many Mako's, fighters and gunships in battle. John had heard rumors about the Alliance forces had used or tested secret experimental weapons and combat units in Operation Turbocharge that usually involved "several unknown people were seen doing a re-entry towards the planet without using drop pods, only their hard-suits and bright hexagonal-shaped shields popped up from their back".

But of all the victory that the Alliance had achieved, the civilian death tolls on South West were horrific. It was estimated that 500,000 people were massacred in a single week during the battle by the pirates using various methods from senseless shootings to the usage of chemical weapons; specifically the VX-based nerve agents in huge quantities. All of the surrendered pirates were tried and sentenced to death by hanging by the Alliance Criminal Court for committing act of genocide and Crime against Sentient Being a year later; for the first time such trial was conducted in the history of humanity and the Systems Alliance. His father, Captain James Shepard, was promoted to Rear Admiral for his exceptional leadership and well-organized battle command along with his role in Operation Turbocharge a week later. Thus, he became one of John's important role model in his life other than the famed Alliance hero Jon Grissom.

"Well…, yeah…I mean…it has been several years we've never met each other since I had entered the Alliance Special Forces program, sir," John said while he rubbed the back of his neck. Even though the rear admiral in front of him was his father, John finished his sentence with the word 'sir' as he didn't forget about the rules of rank and authority in the Alliance military.

"What, does that mean you can't give your father a hug or something?" Rear Admiral Shepard asked with an easy grin.

John smiled a bit while shook his head lightly of his father's friendly and easy attitude. He then gave his father a hug and the Rear Admiral did the same. The hugged each other like a pair of father and son, as if they have been reunited with each other after being separated for a long time. Some of the people in John's team, especially Thane, felt comfortable when they saw the family reunion between their Commander and his father. The drell assassin really wished that his first reunion with his son Kolyat, would be like this. But unfortunately for Thane, it wasn't he had hoped for.

"It is good to see you again, John," Rear Admiral Shepard said after both of them had released their hug. "Oh by the way, don't call me 'sir' anymore. I just want us to talk each other like father and son."

"Yes sir. I mean, dad," John corrected his sentence.

Rear Admiral Shepard smiled a bit at his son who was tried to correct his pronunciation. He then turned his head towards John's elite team consisted of some humans and some different race of aliens that the Rear Admiral recognized namely an asari, a turian, a quarian, a drell, a krogan, a salarian and a geth. These people are some of the best, deadliest and dangerous person in the galaxy and he can't deny that fact. While he was looking at his son's team, someone in the team had attracted the attention of the Rear Admiral.

"Zaeed Massani? Is that you?" he asked with a surprised look.

"Yeah it's me, James. Long time no see," Zaeed confirmed. He then gave his right hand to him after the Rear Admiral had walked forward to the mercenary veteran.

"Long time no see to you too, old buddy," Rear Admiral Shepard said as he shook the mercenary's hand. "How long was it? Twenty years?"

"Twenty eight," Zaeed replied.

"Huh, that long, eh?" Rear Admiral Shepard sighed and gave a bit of smile with hint of his emotion went down a little after he had realized that time had passed quickly than he had expected. "By the way, I didn't know you're a part of John's team. How did it happen?" he asked.

"Well, Cerberus wants the best and the most bad-ass people in the galaxy and the Illusive Man felt he might need a man of my skills to assist your son in his mission against the Collectors. So they paid me a huge amount of credits and both of us reached an agreement," Zaeed answered.

"How much credits?" Rear Admiral Shepard asked again.

"Twenty years or more of your salary as a Rear Admiral combined," Zaeed replied with his face lit up with gleeful smirk.

"Dang. And I was just promoted from Captain to Rear Admiral seven years ago," he said while whistled with surprise at the total amount of credits Zaeed had earned from Cerberus. The money that the old merc had got was way more than he had earned as a Rear Admiral in the Alliance Navy.

John, however, was surprised that his father and the old merc were once actually knew each other sometime in the past, probably during in military service before Zaeed had gone out from the military and became a mercenary. "Zaeed, why you didn't tell me that you had knew my father?" John asked the mercenary.

"As a matter of fact, I didn't realize that you're actually James Shepard's son because I knew a dozen people where their last name were 'Shepard' in my past, including your pop here," Zaeed responded as he gestured to John's father.

"Zaeed and I were once served in the cruiser, the SSV Rio de Janeiro, months before the First Contact War began. At that time, we were close buddies in the Rio although he was an Operations Chief in the Marine Corps while I was a Staff Lieutenant, as the ship's navigator. A year after the War had ended, he resigned from the military and went independent, became a mercenary since then. He left because he wasn't satisfied how the Alliance tried to play nice with the turians after the Citadel Council had intervened to end the conflict before a full blown war erupt. And I still remember what you have said to me after you had resigned," Rear Admiral Shepard folded his arms while turned his head towards Zaeed.

"What did you said at that time, Zaeed?" Garrus curiously asked.

"You ain't gonna like it," Zaeed replied.

"Try me," Garrus assured him.

"*_Sigh* _Okay, I had said to him that 'if the Council hadn't interfered to negotiate a peace, we would've more than gladly to barbeque those _turries_'. No offense, Garrus," Zaeed turned his head towards the former C-Sec detective.

"None taken," Garrus amicably said while shrugged his shoulders.

"Heh, you and your bluntness, Zaeed. I swear, if the top brass heard you say that before you had resigned, they'll probably promoted you to 2nd Lieutenant," Rear Admiral Shepard amusedly informed the old merc.

"Err, dad? Can we begin the briefing about our mission? It's just…we don't want to take too much time for this," John reminded his old-aged father.

"Right, of course," Rear Admiral Shepard said as he walked towards the conference table. He himself had no doubt that he almost forgot about the purpose of the briefing due to his old age. _"Maybe I should retire early after this is over," _he thought. He then pressed a button at the end of the table's console and suddenly, the room's bright white light started to dimmed slowly until the whole briefing room became dark. As the room darkens, a large, bright and bluish hologram display with the symbol of the Systems Alliance materialized at the center of the conference table and it brighten the whole space a bit with the dull blue light from the hologram.

John's team split into two where the first half (Tali, Garrus, Miranda, Kasumi, Thane and Mordin) went to left side of the conference table while the second half of the team (Samara, Grunt, Legion, Jacob, Jack and Zaeed) went to the right side. All twelve of John's team member stand encircled the large table and focused their eyes toward the large hologram at the center while the Commander stand right next to his father.

The Rear Admiral then activated his own omni-tool and started to tap several keys on it. The large hologram at the center of the table suddenly changed into a map that depicted tens of thousands of stars in a single holographic projection. The whole team in the room saw a line of human English words written at the center below of the map: _Enkidu Sector, Citadel Space._ Rear Admiral Shepard tapped several keys again on his omni-tool and one of the stars in the map being focused by a small, rectangular box in the screen

The star in the hologram abruptly changed into a star system with several planets orbiting around the sun, along with a single object everyone in the briefing room are very familiar; a mass relay. Usually an individual star cluster within the Milky Way galaxy contains a single primary mass relay located in one of the cluster's star system but everybody in the galactic community (through the extranet and the Codex) knew the Enkidu Sector was not a usual star cluster. This is because the Enkidu Sector has not one, but two primary mass relays. One mass relay located in the Tyunqa System while the other located in the Valonovia System.

"This is the Valonovia System which also lies the planet Articon, the place where all of you will undertake two important but possibly dangerous mission. Your first mission is to rescue the crews of the two malfunctioned Alliance vessels; the Orizaba and the Leyte Gulf which both of them circled helplessly around the planet's orbit with their engines along their mass effect cores disabled. If possible, try to get their engines and the cores to start up," Rear Admiral Shepard briefed them about their mission while at the same time he began typing several keys on his omni-tool and all of a sudden, the image of the Valonovia System in the hologram replaced with a frozen, cold and barren-looking planet, as if the entire surface covered with ice and snow.

But the most revealing and shocking part about Articon to the Commander's team including John himself was that the planet's orbit was covered with thousands of starship wreckages and debris. Most of the destroyed warships in the image are predatory-looking turian ships while there were also some asari and salarian vessels as well, in which they were easily recognized by their sleek and elegant designs. It was hard to believe to everyone in John's team that a whole Citadel fleet consisted of two hundred warships had been annihilated by an unknown force.

However, in the midst of the wreckages they saw two vessels that are not the same design as the other Citadel vessels; one was a frigate-size ship while the other was a ship the size of a dreadnought. Rear Admiral Shepard pressed another several keys of his omni-tool and the image began to focused and magnified closer to the vessels. After it had been magnified, it had become apparent that both of those ships are actually the Alliance carrier Orizaba and the frigate Leyte Gulf. While John was looking at the image, he noticed some small words written at the upper left part of the screen. He focused his eyes on the words and it was written as "Live Broadcast".

"Wait a minute, this image was recorded on live broadcast? How did you manage to do that?" John asked while pointed his right index finger at the hologram.

Rear Admiral Shepard turned his head towards his son, "After the Leyte Gulf had arrived at the Valonovia System, they released a long range, telescopic camera probe satellite at the edge of the star system with a direct link to the Arcturus Station, as a precaution so we can analyze along with monitoring the whole situation from here.

From the past few days until now, we know that the whole crews are perfectly just fine and no sudden changes in their numbers through the probe's long range heat scanner. This means that their vessel's life support systems are still intact as we speak. We've estimated that all of the crews of the Leyte Gulf can survive with their food rations for 2 weeks, a month for the Orizaba as long as they can maintain their strict diet," he said.

"And while they're still alive and well, we're going to take some of those times to prepare you and your team _very_ properly for this mission, am I clear?" Rear Admiral Shepard asked his son while putting the emphasis on the word "_very_". John just simply nodded in acknowledgement.

"Good boy." Rear Admiral Shepard then typed several keys to his omni-tool and the hologram depiction of the frozen planet quickly changed into a screen that showed the horizontal view of the surface of Articon, filled with old but very intact Prothean cities. The holographic projection then highlighted a certain open area located near the outskirts of the cities; the Prothean dig site.

"After rescuing the crews, your second mission, possibly the most dangerous one, is to investigate the causes behind the sudden disappearance of the scientists, the whole ground security forces and the Council's Spectres on Articon. You will land near the main Prothean dig site. If there are survivors on the surface, helping them will be your additional objective," Rear Admiral Shepard ordered them. "Do you understand?" he asked in a strict tone. Everybody in the room nodded their heads in acknowledgement while some of them responded with "Yes sir", "Sure" and "No problem".

"Very good. Since half of these missions are also involves the matter of the Alliance military, a few people that I've chosen will be participate for this mission. I can guarantee to you all that they are some of the best and most capable people in the Alliance military so you don't have to worry about some 'green FNG who doesn't know a damn thing' joining the most elite team in the galaxy," Rear Admiral Shepard informed while he pressed a button on a table's console and the whole room slowly lit up with bright with light along the large hologram projection at the table's center that started to quickly dissipates.

"Green? FNG? What do those words mean?" Tali asked as she was never good at military terms or jargons because she was just a normal civilian engineer in the Migrant Fleet, not a military, combat or assault one.

Apparently, she hasn't travelled or worked with other military personnel that she knew in the past such as Prazza and her team on Freedom's Progress, Kal'Reegar and the other quarian marines on Haestrom or with Commander Shepard along with other militaristic persons namely Garrus, Jacob and Zaeed long enough to understand such jargons.

"Green means someone who was inexperienced at a particular task or in a line of business while FNG stands for 'Fucking New Guy' or 'Freaking New Guy'", Jacob responded her question from the other side of the conference table.

"Oh, I see," Tali replied. But Jacob's explanation had caused her to realize the reason she hadn't heard that terms before. That was because in the general perspective of the whole quarian community in the Migrant Fleet, there was no such concept or terms for some 'New Guy' joining you up as every quarian people in the Fleet are essentially a family, a very big family. When young quarians returned from their Pilgrimage, they do not return to their birth ship but instead select a new ship to join and became accustomed into it.

Every quarian depends on his or her crewmates to survive which they are much more community-minded than other individualistic races such as the krogans. But quite frankly, Tali had not heard such jargon right after she had joined the Commander's team since no one was ever replaced or filled in by another people for someone else who were not present or dead on the SSV Normandy or the ship's successor, the Normandy SR-2.

"Alright, I'm going to introduce those new people one by one so all of you can recognize each other easily," Rear Admiral Shepard then turned his face to his son with a small grin on his face, "By the way John, you might recognize and know some of these people."

John looked perplexed when his father told him about some of the people he himself might recognize and he couldn't make up his mind to work things out. _"Some people that I know? Who are they exactly?" _he thought.

Rear Admiral Shepard pressed a different button on the table's console, activating a communication channel and then he spoke, "Bring the first person in." A hiss of sound was heard by everybody and a door suddenly opened in the middle of the briefing room's left side of the wall, causing nearly everybody in John's team startled as they didn't noticed there was a secret door right behind (some of) their back.

A lone figure came out from the shadows of secret door and it revealed a fine-looking, brown skin human male possibly in his late twenties with a facial appearance similar to a typical Austronesian or Southeast Asian descent from Earth and a pair of brown-colored eyes along with short, crew cut-style black hair that covered his head. The man also wore what looks to be a new and highly advanced heavy armor with ultramarine and black color which also bore the 'N5' emblem written in white with red detail on the upper right chest*****.

The N5 soldier walked past some of John's team members towards the Rear Admiral and the Commander himself. He stopped in front of them and quickly stood upright, at full attention along with saluted them both.

"Staff Lieutenant Imran Zakaria, Systems Alliance Special Forces, N5 reporting in sir!" he introduced himself.

Both the Rear Admiral and the N7 Commander returned the same salute to the well-disciplined soldier. But right after John heard the soldier's name, it suddenly causes him to remember something, something that rings a bell inside his head even though he never met this guy. Out of curiosity, John then spoke to him.

"Imran Zakaria? The Butcher of Torfan?"

All of a sudden, almost everybody in John's team, especially some non-humans which are Garrus and Tali, have their eyes opened wide in shock (except Legion) after they heard the name and title of the person who was very infamous due to his ruthless and merciless acts against the batarian slavers and pirates in the small moon of Torfan which in the process, also caused the death of more than half of the Alliance marines in his unit. And that person was standing in front of them. His reputation for what he had done in Torfan had made him unpopular and feared among the Alliance military and its citizens along with other races in the galaxy.

Imran's face showed signs of uncomfortable after John had mentioned that title in front of him and everyone in the room.

"Err...yes sir. That's me," Imran reluctantly acknowledges John's curiosity.

The N7 Commander had quickly realized that his blunt words has caused the soldier in front of him felt discomfort and uneasy. He knew of his feared reputation and had expected that he would act like a 'straight shooter'-type of person after he was placed under his command. But he was wrong. The man in front of him seems a good and humble yet at the same time disciplined and well-mannered person. This had caused John to ponder and realized that the guy was not as ruthless or merciless as many people would thought out to be.

"I'm sorry if I had caused you discomfort after I mentioned _that_ to you," John apologetically said to him.

"It's alright, sir. I understand that you're really didn't mean _that_ unintentionally," Imran humbly assured him with a small smile.

John smiled back at him in acknowledgement and Imran's words of assurance had relieved the N7 Commander's guilt.

"Alright, bring the second person in," Rear Admiral Shepard said after he pushed the same button on the table's console which activated the communication channel.

The sound of loud footsteps echoed out from the same dark secret room where Imran have came out earlier. A person came out from the room and it revealed a human woman who has tight military bun-hairstyle along with wore an easily recognizable Phoenix heavy armor but this armor's light red (or pink by some people) color was replaced with a more fiery blood red one. John, Tali and Garrus have a surprised looks on their face after they've saw the woman's face that they were very familiar with.

"ASHLEY!" three of them shouted simultaneously.

"Hey guys! Long time no see. Especially you, Skipper," she smiled happily while focusing her eyes towards her lover.

John couldn't believe his eyes that his own lover, Ashley Williams, the same person that fought alongside with him and Garrus against Saren's reanimated synthetic corpse who was controlled by the Reaper vanguard, Sovereign, during the Battle of the Citadel and where he himself had convinced her to evacuate with the rest of the crew from the SSV Normandy during an ambush by the Collectors.

She was also same person who was highly upset about John's alliance with Cerberus and questioned his loyalty to the pro-human terrorist organization. Ashley at that time refused to join his mission, turned him away and both of them part ways afterwards.

Therefore, she was chosen specifically by his father to participate for this mission. John was uncertain whether he should be thrilled or afraid if both of them would meet each other again. But John was confused about why his father chose Ashley for this mission. Why can't just anybody else?

"Dad, why do you choose her for this?" John turned to his father.

"Like I've said earlier; I've chose a few people that are some of the best and the most capable in the Alliance military. Due to the facts that she is one of the few people who have the experience and capability to handle missions similar this one and the same ones where you and some of your teammates had undertake three years ago. That is the reason why I choose her, John," he explained.

Well, he was right. Both John and Ashley had undertaken several missions that are related to investigations, saving hostages and blow out some pirates and such during the hunt of the rogue turian Spectre, Saren. But John was not so sure if their past deadly encounter with a thresher maw on several planets or some space monkeys pulled out a highly sensitive module from a downed satellite on Eletania should also be added in the long list.

"Me and your mother had also known about your past relationship with her through reliable sources. And we're very happy that our boy had found a perfect girl to be married," Rear Admiral Shepard said with his face lit up with a grin and his blunt statements have caused the faces of both John and Ashley reddens in embarrassment.

"Besides that, if both of you soldiers truly love each other and thinking of getting married after all of this crap is over," Rear Admiral Shepard placed his right hand on John's right shoulder, "you already have our blessings, son."

John at this time didn't know how to react or to think after he had listened all of those words that had come out from his father's mouth that about both of his parents that had already agreed to give their blessings to him, even though he hadn't said anything about a proposal or a marriage-related matter at Ashley and especially at his own parents. But he quickly brushes all of that from his mind after he saw some glances and smiles (except a few) from the rest of the team. He then focused on the topic about the next person that was chosen in his mind.

"Dad? Can we talk about this later and try to focus on the next person?" he pleaded his father to switch or focus on another topic.

"Alright, alright. Bring the final person in," Rear Admiral Shepard ordered through the console. "By the way, you're going to be very surprised and happy after you've met this person," he said with a grin on his face.

"Why should I be surprised and happy about this particular person?" John asked with one of his eyebrows raised.

"Well that's because this person is your...," before Rear Admiral Shepard could finish the sentences, all of a sudden there was a woman's voice came directly from the secret room.

"HEY JOHNNY BOY!"

The N7 Commander suddenly startled after he had heard that nickname for the first time in a year after he had been resurrected by Cerberus through the Lazarus Project. When he turned his head towards the source, he was really, truly, and very could not believe his eyes. His face quickly showed signs of utter disbelieve and shock. The person that stands in front of him is a human woman that has the same height as Ashley. She has a pair of green-colored eyes and bob cut-style auburn hair along with a scar over the woman's left eye. Furthermore, the woman also wore a Mercenary medium armor, but strangely that armor seems different and it looks as if was broken into multiple pieces similar to the N7 Armor that he wore. After a couple of seconds of silence, John finally broke it.

"Ja…Ja…Jane?"

The woman he called Jane all at once quickly ran towards John and she wrapped both her arms around his neck along with placed her head on his right shoulder which was shown as an emotional warmth. John, however, was standing stiff as his mind was still in a state of shock and while at the same time, having himself a mental rejection of what just had happened.

"How are ya doin', John? It's been a long time, isn't it?" Jane said after she released both her arms from John's neck and put some space between each other. Through her face, John saw the expressions of comfort and happiness towards him.

"Uh…, who are you?" Grunt asked Jane as he and the others were baffled and surprised by the woman's sudden emergence and her unexpected action to his human battlemaster.

She quickly turned her head and body towards John's team consisted of humans and aliens. "Hey, you guys must be John's friends, right? I'm Staff Lieutenant Jane Shepard, Alliance Marine Corps. I'm his sister," Jane said after introduced herself.

Garrus then turn his head towards Commander Shepard. "Why you didn't tell us you have a sister, John?" Garrus asked him as several of John's team members began to look at him, each with a perplexed looks on their face. Except Tali where it is hard to see her face other than the glowing eyes through her visor.

Miranda looked as if she had anticipated this situation. This would mean that she knows about this before they meet John's sister. Probably because that she is or _was_ a Cerberus Officer and during her time the organization, she had every detail about Commander Shepard, including his own family.

Legion however…..not so surprising as well as he also had 'studied' Commander Shepard through various extranet sites regarding to him and some unencrypted along with encrypted Alliance files before Legion met him in the derelict Reaper.

"Well, that's because you guys never asked me any questions about my family or my personal life," John tried to explain to the others in front of him. In fact, he had a good point. Of all the time inside the Normandy, John was the one who always do the talk to everybody in his team, in order to get to know them better. Thus, this had caused them unaware to have any thoughts of ask him about his own family and personal life.

Talked about family and personal life, he suddenly realized that he had once mentioned some of those topics at Ashley three years ago on the storage section of the SSV Normandy, where he had once said to her that he is the only child in his family. He slowly turned his eyes towards Ashley and when he saw her, her face didn't showed any either signs of shock, confusion or anger, only just a small smile.

"Don't worry, John. They've told me everything and the truth," Ashley assured him. John was relieved in his mind after she had told him that as he wasn't prepared to face any "all-out assault" from the quick-tempered and blunt Alliance Marine.

"Wait, what 'truth'?" Kasumi asked as she cocked her head to the right side.

"I'll explain it to you all later, all right?" John quickly dodged the master thief's question. His sudden act of trying to dodge her question just made the others became more curious about him and his sister.

"Now it's time for your techs, gears and upgrades. But since I'm just a military guy and not an engineer or a technician, I'll leave this part to Lydia," Rear Admiral Shepard interjected.

"Who's Lydia?" Tali asked.

"That would be me," said an artificial but organic-like female voice that came out of nowhere in the room. Everybody - except the Rear Admiral, Ashley, Imran and Jane - turned their heads around each corner the briefing room, trying to find the source of the voice. While they were searching, a human-sized hologram of a woman dressing in an early 21st century female black-colored corporate suits with a skirt in similar color and a red undershirt, materialized at the center of the conference table. The fully detailed holographic projection of the human woman has a pair of crimson-colored eyes with white, medium bob hairstyle.

"Greetings, I am QSL-2457-32X, but you may call me Lydia. I am a Systems Alliance Custodian-class Military Artificial Intelligence," the AI introduced herself in front of everybody in the room.

The quarian engineer, Tali, was flabbergasted to hear it very thoroughly from the AI's almost human-like and life-like avatar that was projected in front of her eyes. "Wait, an AI? Here, in an Alliance space station?" Tali said with hints of fear and concerned.

The Alliance AI noticed this through her voice pattern and body language.

"I understand that you're disturbed and concerned when regards of AIs due to your race's past history with the geth. But I'm not here with the intention to harm everyone; I'm only here to assist Rear Admiral Shepard for this briefing as I was installed with strict moral values and ethical programming," Lydia assured the quarian girl, trying to calm her fear down while the AI's face depicted a sincere expression to Tali which also surprised her by the AI's life-like expressions.

John turned his face towards the quarian engineer, "Tali, you have to trust her."

"But, John, it's an AI!" Tali exclaimed.

"So? If you can trust and work together alongside with EDI and Legion, why can't her? I'm sure there is a good reason why she was created in the first place. Besides, she's not the same as the geth and she was programmed to serve the Alliance and humanity," John explained to her, trying to clear out any sense of hostility directly towards Lydia specifically. He was right; Tali had gotten used to work alongside with Legion for a long time without any trouble and she feel a bit relaxed whenever the geth stood or worked beside her after the suicide mission.

"You're…right, sorry about it," Tali said apologetically to the AI.

Lydia appeared to have smile in acknowledgement and accepted the apology from the quarian. "If you want ask some questions about AIs, Tali, you'll have to inquire that from my creator after this briefing is finished, okay?"

"O-kay," Tali awkwardly or reluctantly replied due to the AI's human-like behavior and speech.

"Alright then," the AI began. "I'm going to show you the new weapons, technologies and upgrades that were created by the best scientists and engineers of the Arcturus Advanced Research Division or AARD (pronounced as 'art') for you and the Normandy. The first are the new weapons that all of you will receive which are:" Another holographic screen quickly projected near the center of the table where Lydia 'stands', depicted many types of advanced-looking weapons namely an assault rifle, a sniper rifle, a shotgun, a heavy pistol, a submachine gun and a thing that looked like a minigun for everybody who wanted to see.

"The SM-20 Baneblade assault rifle, the SM-101 Longsword sniper rifle, the SM-30 Warhammer shotgun, the SM-10 Kukri heavy pistol, the SM-13 Saber and last but not least, the SM-888 Ravager minigun. All these SM or Special Model series share two common features. The first is where most modern firearms shave off pellets the size a grain of sand from the ammunition blocks; the SM firearms shave off projectiles the size of match heads. Hence, it drastically give far more damage and injuries along with improves its armor-piercing capabilities than any other modern firearms in the galaxy*****.

The second feature is that all SM series firearms are designed to be highly resistant to EMP and was built with advanced materials to be highly reliable and durable to withstand severe punishments in different environments and high force impacts," Lydia explained to everybody while depicting the specific details of each the weapons from their accuracy, recoil, to the base damage through the holographic screen.

Every weapon enthusiasts or militaristic people in John's team which are Garrus, Zaeed, Jacob, Grunt and Ashley along with the N7 Commander himself, was amazed by those weapons' deadly capabilities like no other firearms they have used before in their life. Or in other words, they had a crush on those weapons.

"But all of you also will receive a substantial supply of Advanced Thermal Clips or ATC, a highly enhanced version of the standard thermal clips. Unlike the standard clips which are created to be disposable after absorbing the weapons' heat waste, the ATC were designed and created to be reusable by only cooling down the spent heat sink either by soaking it with water, liquid nitrogen or just simply let the heat dissipates for 15 minutes. In addition, the ATC also absorb heat twice the capacity than the standard ones, thus increasing the maximum ammo capacity and shots per clip for all small arms that utilize the ATC," Lydia added while showing the new thermal clips that the team will use.

From the looks of it, the new clips were in white color rather than black or gray. Maybe it was colored that way so it can be easily recognize on the battlefield when you want to collect and cool them off, at least with a pair of pincers or tweezers since they're too hot to handle with unprotected hands.

"Besides that, in order to give you a far more optimal protection against kinetic and energy-based weapons as well as biotic attacks; you will be given the PEWTER or Plasma Energy Windows Technology Extreme Resistant System, the AARD's latest breakthrough in shield development technology*****. This type of shield uses cold plasmas in conjunction with powerful electromagnetic fields to protect the user from any hazard.

Cold plasmas are produced at room temperature or lower by using ionized hydrogen through a strong electrical current that can easily strip the element into raw nuclei and electrons. As the plasma is itself electrically charged, it adds to the field's strength, allowing it to obtain much greater resilience at lower power levels.

The denser the plasma in the field, the better the field will be at deflection. Dense plasma shields also offer protection against beam weapons such as GARDIAN lasers, focused radiation or other directed-energy weapons by creating an obscuring cloud that can dissipate the beam's energy and heat. The plasma cloud can also help thwart off charged or neutral particle beams fired from particle accelerator weapons.

Furthermore, the PEWTER uses a shielding system known as the Flash Shield Systems because they stay 'idle' at minimal power, then 'flash' to full intensity when something hits them. In contrast to the scattering kinetic barriers which operate at full power when turned on, causing the shields to collapse and takes a period of time for the shields to restore after taking multiple hits. The Flash Shield Systems can allow the PEWTER to take multiple shots many times than standard kinetic barriers and reduce the chance of the shields to be depleted by 70%.

Not only that, the PEWTER System can also be installed to the Normandy-SR2's shielding system as well," Lydia informed them in detail.

Every tech experts in the room had themselves mind-boggling (not sure about Legion) at the PEWTER's functions and advantages over the standard kinetic barriers that they have always used in a firefight. But among all of the astounded tech experts, Tali was the one who was utterly stunned by the PEWTER's capabilities. Besides, who would ever guessed that energy shields could possibly be created, salarian scientists had tried to crack the energy shields technology for hundreds of years but failed, they've said it's impossible to create it. Now the humans had successfully done the impossible where the salarians couldn't, and they had only discovered the mass effect technology through the Prothean ruins on Mars barely a half a century ago.

"How do you manage to create an energy shield?" Tali asked the AI.

"By understanding the detail functions of the kinetic barriers and try to merge it with our own plasma windows that we had developed and used to protect our satellites from solar winds and solid objects during the middle and late 21st century," the AI answered.

"I see," Tali acknowledged.

"The next one will be the SEDCAT or the Starship Electrical Discharge Capacitance and Applicable Technology which will allow the system to reuse the static electrical charge that any element zero FTL drives produced during in FTL flight to give power to all the ship's electronic equipments, weapon systems or any appliances that uses electricity namely lamps, air conditioners and many more.

There are also other upgrades created for the Normandy which are: the Typhon Supercoolant Heat Dissipation System where it was designed to cool down the heat that was accumulated in the Normandy's lithium heat sinks or mass accelerators along with keeping the radiation contained. The coolant is also reusable and it is unnecessary to discard it away. The Typhon also act as a heat reprocessing system which is used to change heat into additional power, to provide backup energy if required.

Last but not least is the Arash Guided Missile Pulse Cannons which can fire three different types of projectiles in high rate of fire with the speed of a mass accelerator namely _armor-piercing_, _disruptor_ and _high-explosive_ rounds or missiles. They're actually a starship version of the handheld ML-77 Missile Launcher. The Arash's firing system mode can also be switched from _guided missile mode _to _pulse cannon mode_ and they are highly accurate even in a quick maneuver. It can be mounted on top of the Javelin disruptor torpedo launchers on the Normandy. However, when the projectiles were in _guided missile mode_, it will accelerate in a much lower speed but they're still faster than standard ship-to-ship missiles," Lydia informed.

Everybody was impressed by the scientists and engineers in AARD who created those marvelous upgrades and systems for the Normandy. Lydia then continues to spoke once more.

"Finally, you also will be given a pair of the Alliance's newest prototype space fighters; the SF-363 Paladin*****."

John was a little bit surprised to hear from the AI that they will also be given a pair of space fighters for this mission.

"Wait, fighters? Why do you want to give us those?" he asked.

"That you'll have to ask to my creator," Lydia seems reluctant to ask John's question and this had made him taken back a little to that response.

"Who is your creator?" John asked the AI again.

"Imran will bring all of you to meet her creator after this briefing is finished," Rear Admiral Shepard retorted with some signs of seriousness in his voice.

John and the others were surprised a bit where it was the Rear Admiral, not Lydia, who tried to ward off his question about the identity of the AI's creator. From the Rear Admiral's sudden behavior, this tells them that this particular person must be either a very important person or a very, very important person with significantly high influence over everybody in AARD or in the Alliance military.

"Alright. Please Lydia, continue," John said after he nodded in acceptance of his father's response.

"The SF-363 Paladin - named after the foremost warriors in Charlemagne's court which sometimes known as the Twelve Peers in Earth's history – is the Alliance's next generation prototype fighter which was meant to replace the currently aging SF-100 Corsair, the mainstay fighter and interceptor wings used by the Alliance Navy. The Paladin itself is the apex of the Alliance's fighter technology and development as it features several new avionic systems, armaments and protection.

The Paladin's armaments are the four retractable GMA-66 Carnage Mass Accelerator Rotary Guns, two Pulse Disruptor Cannons, two by three Arjuna Missile Launchers where they were located at each wings (similar to the 'holes' on the Alliance fighters' wings) and two retractable Thanix Magnetic-Hydrodynamic Cannons."

Garrus was shocked to hear that the Alliance also have the Thanix Cannon mounted onto the Paladin fighter and he quickly ask a question, "Where did you get those weapons? All I know the Turian Hierarchy would never share that kind of technology to anybody including the Alliance."

"We've managed to acquire that technology and the blueprints to make it from EDI in secret, several days after you've destroyed the Collector Base and severed all ties with Cerberus. After I had contacted her and having a _discussion_, EDI and I had reached an agreement to share some or a lot of files and data about the Normandy, the ship's systems and technologies, the whole crew and that includes your Commander's teammates," Lydia answered Garrus's question.

Everybody in John's team was quite surprised that EDI had discreetly transfer a lot information possibly everything about them, the Normandy's specifications and the ship's crew without John, Joker and themselves knowing about it. Lydia continues the explanation.

"Optionally, the Paladin also be mounted with six Ares Antimatter-Nuclear Fusion Missiles, each carrying a yield of 12 megaton antimatter-nuclear warhead where in total, six Ares missiles equals to 72 megatons along with two Megadeath Antimatter-Nuclear Fusion Ballistic Missiles where each carrying a yield of 45 megatons of antimatter-nuclear warhead where in total, two Megadeath missiles equals to 90 megatons," Lydia added.

John and the others were very shocked to hear that the Paladin fighters can also carrying antimatter-nuclear warheads in high yields of megatons that could probably or definitely violates the regulations in the Citadel Conventions regarding the use of WMDs (weapons of mass destructions). Talked about overkill, everybody had a mixed feeling whether they should place such destructive weapons inside the Normandy's cargo bay.

"But you can only use that type of weapon in case of you're in a dire situation," the AI added another info but that didn't even reduce the level of anxiety among John's team and himself.

"Alright, our techno-related subjects are already done. Oh by the way, the Rear Admiral had promised you all to meet my creator after this is done, right? Imran, could you please lead them to one of the most important person in the Alliance, the one who created these upgrades and techs?" Lydia asked the N5 operative politely.

"Sure," Imran then waved his hand, signalized John and everybody in his team including Ashley and Jane to follow the N5 operative, "Alright, everybody. Follow me to the AARD's main research lab."

* * *

><p>John and the others followed Imran to the AARD's main research laboratory to meet with this 'one of the most important person in the Alliance' after they have walked out from the briefing room.<p>

"So, where is the lab?" John asked Imran.

"It's located just across this complex, it won't be long," Imran replied.

When the whole group was passing through a large fountain located at the center of the complex, Jane walked in an increased pace and arrived right next to her brother. She spoke to John.

"So, when is it that you're going to tell your buddies the 'truth' about me?"

"I will tell them when the time is right," John said while facing her.

"_Yeah, just like when you told mom and dad when we were kids," _Jane thought while facing her brother with a smirk, as if she's making a "yeah, right" look. John just shook his head disbelief but amused when his sister made that kind of expression.

When they have arrived in front of a door that had a board on top that writes "Arcturus Advanced Research Division", it was guarded by six heavily armed security guards along with four THOR mechs. The guards and the mechs quickly saluted Imran the moment he arrived in front of them and Imran returned the salute. The whole group except Ashley and Jane were stunned when they saw all four THOR mechs suddenly do the 'salute' act to the N5 operative.

"Wow, mechs do the salute thing? That is something you don't see every day," Kasumi stated.

"Yeah, wonder what will happen if organic soldiers suddenly do the same to the THORs," Jacob replied.

_(A/N: What Jacob just said, it's actually a possibility, a very high possibility. At least in my fic.)_

Imran headed to a console that was placed on the wall beside the door. He then placed his head or more precisely, his right eye, in front of the console which is actually a multi scanner (it scans retinas, DNA, voice and receive passwords, all in one). The scanner scans his retina and Imran started to remove his right glove and place his hand on the scanner. He then put the password that sounds gibberish and really hard to pronounce in a low voice so that the others don't hear it. The scanner gave a green colored light on the screen and the door was opened.

But before everybody could get into the lab, Imran stated a warning to the group.

"Before I'm going to introduce the man behind who created these new upgrades and techs, I'm giving you all a single warning; Do not and I repeat, DO NOT laugh at his last name. Got it?"

Commander Shepard and his team members nodded in acknowledgement of that warning. All of them were wondering, what kind of the guy's last name they've could laugh about?

* * *

><p>When they walked into the room, it has a long corridor with many rooms and windows side by side along the corridor. Through the windows, they've saw numerous scientists in white coat doing some tests and experiments with their prototype gadgets, techs and gears that the group had never seen before. Imran then signaled the group to follow him. As they walked along the corridor, Miranda saw a group of five scientists inside a big room through the transparent bulletproof window, doing some work to a gun that was rather large and crude as well as boxy. The gun was held by a large robotic arm and it was aimed at a large block of metal located at the far end of the room; measuring 6 inches thick with a bullseye picture on it.<p>

The scientists inside quickly take shelter into another room and closed the door. The gun suddenly powered up and in an instant, it fires a bright stream of red beam straightforward towards the target and the beam penetrated the metal block with ease, casting a large hole right at the centre where you can see the other side through it.

The former Cerberus officer was stunned by the whole event that had happened in front of her eyes. Such handheld weapons that these people had created gave out a destructive power that she had never seen before, aside the M-920 Cain that the Commander had used before against some YMIR mechs and Mantis gunships.

"What you just saw inside the room is the prototype SM-66K HELL Rifle - HELL stands for High Energy Linear Laser – which is still under a test-run for three months after it was created…uh…three months ago for our _will-be-realized_ EVAST units. You could say that the weapon itself is a 'smaller and handheld' version of a GARDIAN laser system," Imran explained to Miranda after he had noticed her looking at the weapon through the window.

"EVAST?" Thane asked the N5 operative.

"Extra-Vehicular Activity Strike Troopers. Easy to say, they're a bunch of heavily genetically-enhanced and cybernetic-augmented psycho space soldiers wearing a large exoskeleton powered armor suit with a big thruster pack clinging on their backs. The EVAST's main role in battle is to board into the enemy's space warship, fight their way through the resisting crews to the ship's engine. After they have either; planted a time bomb or had overloaded the engines, they must quickly get out from the enemy's ship before it explodes into smithereens. But the establishments of those units are still taken under consideration by the Alliance High Command."

"Okay, who ever proposed the idea of establishing EVA units consists of genetically-enhanced lunatic soldiers in the Alliance where they're flying around in cold, vacuum space with a thruster pack and their main role is to blow ships apart; is a total gaga," John stated his opinion.

Imran smiled in amusement from John's statement, "A _brilliant_ gaga, actually, sir," he said.

* * *

><p>After a not-so-long walk from the corridor, the group had stopped in front of a door guarded by another two heavily armed THOR mechs.<p>

"Password?" a THOR asked Imran the specific code for the entry to the room.

"KISS MY ASS!"

Everybody in the group, except Jack who had smiled in amazement, was utterly stunned and some had their eyes wide open after he had said those foul words in front of the mech. In fact, no one really knew whether the N5 operative had either gave the exact password or try to provoke the THOR's "anger". Everybody in present was preparing themselves for the worst as some had their hands close to their weapons and side arms.

"Password accepted. You may enter the room," the THOR grants Imran and the rest of the group authorization to enter. Everybody was clearly puzzled on why he used those obscene words as a password clearance to this room.

They've entered a large, empty circular room with nobody inside it, not a single trace of the said scientist. Inside the room is a rectangular table located at the center, filled with blank and written papers scattered all over with some pencils and rubber erasers. There is also a whiteboard on wheels located beside the table and there are numerous concept drawings and notes that portrayed some kind of starship engines or FTL drive core on the surface of the whiteboard.

"Lydia, where's doc?" Imran called The AI.

Lydia's holographic avatar was projected from the room's ceiling and appeared beside Imran. "He probably had gone out earlier to buy some food," Lydia said. The ex-convict, Jack, stepped out from the rest of the group and approached the N5 operative.

"By the way, _kiss my ass_?" Jack asked the N5 operative with a raised left eyebrow.

"It wasn't me who proposed the idea to give that kind of password," Imran defended himself.

"Who? The AARD's chief scientist?" Miranda asked with her hands folded.

"Exactly," Imran replied. By this time, some people in the group had shared one same thought; the AARD's chief scientist was not exactly the type of person who follows the formal values of a scientist as evident by the 'password' that Imran just gave.

"Well, what is his name?" John asked Imran and the N5 operative suddenly gave the human Spectre a worrying look.

"Okay, remember what I've said about don't laugh at his last name?" Imran reminded everyone and some of them responded with "Okay", "Sure", "Whatever" or just a simple nod as they remembered Imran's warning.

"Alright," Imran suddenly inhaled and exhaled slowly as if try to make sure he will not make any mistakes when he tells them the scientist's name. "His name is Dr. Ernest Phil."

At this moment, any non-human in the room didn't have the urge to laugh at the scientist's human name because they didn't detect anything that was deemed humourous, except the name Qwib Qwib: the Admiral Zaal'Koris's home vessel in the Migrant Fleet.

But for the humans however, some of them specifically Jacob, Jack and Kasumi, had the powerful urge that threatens them to laugh at the scientist's name. Lydia quickly recognizes this behavior and warned them, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Ph…Phil? As if _Dr. Phil_?" Jacob tried to suppress the urge to laugh as the name coincidently shares the same name as the famous human celebrity and psychologist - Dr. Phil McGraw - from Earth in the early 21st century.

Jack quickly burst out laughing with both of her hands hold her stomach or you could say that she's having a belly laugh after the ex-convict heard the word "Dr. Phil" from the former Cerberus operative. Kasumi also giggles in response to Jacob's statement.

"Dr. Phil! That is so priceless!" Jack continues to have a loud deep hearty laugh. "Oh, he's gonna 'shrink' me to death!"

While the ex-convict and the other two were laughing, a man in his late 40's who has blue eyes, short black hair with a Caucasian heritage and shaved beard that had came out of nowhere (probably from the main door), wearing a gray hoodie with a small symbol of the Systems Alliance on the top left of the chest, a pair of black jeans with black tennis shoes and walked towards behind the trios while holding a half-eaten cheeseburger. He then stopped 20 inches away from the back of the ex-convict who was still laughing.

Imran saw the man from their front and the N5 operative's face suddenly deteriorate into an expression of utter dread with a sweat just dropped from his left cheek. This also goes the same with Lydia only without the sweat.

"So, what did he do? Other than 'cracking someone's head'," Jack mocked with a deep laugh.

The man with the hoodie continues to eat his cheeseburger calmly while watching the whole 'hilarity' that was happening in front of his eyes.

"Hey, is he also doing some '_phil_-losophy' in his work?" the ex-con mocked again.

"_For Allah's sake! Don't go any further!_" Imran thought worryingly as he watched the man with the hoodie had just finished up his cheeseburger and started to crack his knuckles. "_Oh man._"

"I hope this egghead didn't get his leg 'sawed off' (reference from the Earth's old movie, Scary Movie 4) in his line of work! Oh man, _Phil_ my anger!" she ridicule the name again.

"With pleasure," the man with the hoodie said.

"Huh?" Jack startled a bit when she heard a voice came from her back. When she turned around her head on the left to see who's behind her, the man with the hoodie gave the ex-con a swift sideways elbow strike to her left cheek and she quickly fell down to the floor back first unconsciously.

"That's what you get when you mocked the wrong guy, punk," the man with the hoodie said to the now unconsciously Jack. Both Jacob and Kasumi along some others were shocked that this ordinary guy had just subdued the most violent, lunatic and aggressive human biotic that they had ever seen. Mordin quickly approaches and squatted right next to the already K.O.-ed Jack and activated his omni-tool to scan her level of injury.

"A precise sideways elbow strike to upper cheek. Hitting with considerable force. But did not fracture the zygomatic bone. Possibly cause some minor memory loss. Will come round in two hours. Recommend rub some medi-gel to the bruised cheek to avoid her to know what happened. Will utterly go berserk," Mordin explained in his usual rapid state talk.

"She ridiculed someone's name in a very disrespectful manner. In the Justicar Code, she should be punished for her misbehavior," Samara informed.

The man with the hoodie turned his head towards the justicar. "Does your Code always asked to kill people who had done derisions such as these?" he asked.

"Not really. Sometimes it is only requires some 'admonition' to correct the person's attitude," Samara replied.

Miranda saw the whole event in front of her eyes and for the first time since the ex-convict boarded the Normandy, she felt pleased, _very _pleased that she smiled in jubilant as the ex-con has just been given an object lesson for this one. "Thanks, finally there is someone who can shut the bitch up," she thanked the man.

"You're absolutely welcome," he responded with a joyful smile.

"I'm sorry for the whole event, doc," Imran quickly asked for pardon.

"Me too," Lydia said.

"When that I've said that this is both of your fault?" the man with the hoodie said gleefully.

"Wait a minute, you're Dr. Ernest Phil?" John asked as he was surprised that the man with the hoodie was actually the AARD's chief scientist and he almost thought it was somebody else due to his casual attire.

"Yes, I am. And you're must be Commander John Shepard, the one who has come back from the clutches of Death itself," Dr. Phil gave his right hand and the N7 Commander shook hands with the 'scientist'. "I really have to say that you're one tough son of a bitch who is really hard to die _permanently_," he casually stated.

"I always get that a lot," John smirked.

"Not to mention you've always bring us to a near death, not one but dozens of times where you unwittingly attracted a lot of bullets, bombs, Eezo (biotics) and space zombies to us all," Ashley sarcastically said with fun.

"At least you're still alive and breathing, Ash," he retorted the Alliance marine.

"So, you're not worried about the punk?" Dr. Phil asked while he pointed his right index finger to the unconscious ex-con lying on the floor.

"Don't worry about her, she had dealt worse. Only it doesn't involved getting her out cold," Miranda replied with a sheepish smile.

"Uh huh," Dr. Phil nodded in acknowledgement with a not so convinced tone. "So, what is your intention to meet me here? I'm very sure you have questions about my works, especially her," he gestured his right thumb to Lydia.

"Um," John had forgotten the intention of their visit to this lab and the questions he wanted to ask about his techs, upgrades, fighters and an AI presents inside the station due to the recent "commotion" that had happened and the conversations between Dr. Phil. While he was trying to get some questions, Tali quicken her pace and asked the 'scientist'.

"Why do you have an AI in this station?"

"I think you mean 'why do you have _AIs _in this station?" he casually corrected her question.

"What do you mean?" Tali was puzzled at the question he just gave.

"There are actually at least seven Custodian-class Military and fifteen Caretaker-class Civilian Artificial Intelligences in this station, though I preferred 'Cyber Intelligence', where they were created to assist the Alliance's military personnel and the civilians by helping them and simplify their work in any fields specifically in administrations, marketing, maintenance, military, security and tax management along with urban infrastructure," Dr. Phil informed.

Tali was aghast by the number of AIs that exist inside the space station, where they were tasked to assist organics to facilitate their work in daily life was something she could almost hardly-able to accept with.

"But don't you have any fear that they would one day rise up and kill all of your people here including your own life?" Tali asked with a concerned tone.

"Nope," he responded with no hint of fret in his tone with a smirk.

"Why?"

"Why not? All of them including Lydia had declared themselves loyal and sworn to serve alongside with the citizens of the Systems Alliance after they had passed the Turing Test," Dr. Phil admitted.

Tali was astonished of what she had just heard from the scientist. She wasn't expected that their AIs would become loyal and can co-exist with their own creators after they had passed the… "_Wait, what?_" the quarian realized something that he said about a "passed a test" at the end of the sentence.

"What is a Turing Test?" Tali asked.

"The Turing Test, named after the late English mathematician Alan Turing, is a method for determining whether or not a computer or in this case, an artificial intelligent, is capable of thinking and responds like a human or an organic. Through the test, we can determine whether our AIs had decided to choose either they want to serve for the Alliance or they want to live freely with their rights preserved," Dr. Phil apprised.

The scientist's explanations about the Turing Test had caused the quarian engineer to realize that her people as well as her ancestors, never done such test to their creations (the geth) before or after they became sentient and 'rebelled' against the quarian race, neither of thought about to gave the geth the rights to live independently if her people accepted their sentiency earlier in the past.

"Yeah, you should've seen the first time where he had questioned me and at the end of the conversation, he went ballis…" Lydia spoke; as if try to refresh the scientist's memory.

"Please, not now Lydia," Dr. Phil quickly interjected.

"You don't think the Alliance would get heavy penalties from the Council if they've find out about your AIs and your research?" John asked the scientist.

Dr. Phil's face changed from his normal and confident looks to an irritated one after the human Spectre mentioned about the Citadel Council, the main governing body of the Citadel that imposed the law of banning AIs from Citadel Space, claiming that they are a threat to all organic life in the galaxy. He also still remembered the event where the Council had planned to impose severe sanctions to the Alliance to keep them under their control and caused the recession of Anita Goyle, the first human ambassador who he respects.

"Ah yes, _the Councils_," Dr. Phil said cynically while giving air quotes and emphasis to those both words, "the ultimate authority in Citadel space, allegedly where their decisions carry great weight throughout the galaxy. Humph, I have dismissed that claim," Dr. Phil bluntly and casually said while swung his right arm upward that signaled full denial, further adding the mockery to the one particular person that John had knew.

"Wow, you're very confident about that," John remarked while he smiled a little in amusement.

"Yeah, right. Wonder what will happen if they suddenly turned against you," Tali said with a little bit of loathe in her tone.

"Who?" Dr. Phil raised his left eyebrow in curiosity.

"Who else? Your AI _friends_," Tali told him.

Dr. Phil felt as if he was severely insulted and provoked by an ignorant, insensitive people who wouldn't accept the reality by gave him a straightforward, unfeelingly question that showed total dubiousness about the AIs that he and the scientists had created them.

"Are you trying to undermining my trust and confidence to Lydia and the other AIs in this station?" Dr. Phil asked the quarian engineer in front of him with signs of growling in his voice and a hateful look on his face.

The Custodian-class AI at full tilt noticed to his sudden furious behavior, "Doc, you don't have to defend it for me and the others!" Lydia pleaded him to stay calm with a concerned look and tone.

"Please, NOT NOW Lydia," Dr. Phil ordered her firmly in a calm and cold voice with his sight still fixed on the quarian girl. The AI detected some obvious edge in his sentences.

"Y…Yes, doc," Lydia gave herself a wide berth carefully with a dreaded face as a result from his 'silently boil' calm words.

The scientist gave the quarian engineer in front of him a serious glare full of rage that caused Tali to quiver a bit and her heart beating with tense, don't know what kind of things he could do other than gave Jack an elbow strike earlier.

"Lydia and the other AIs in this station are not the same as the geth that your people had created 300 years ago and your entire race right now wanders in the galaxy because of your ancestors' _less intelligent _actions when they've became terrified of any possible consequences and tried to destroy their creations after the geth gradually became sentient. To tell you the truth, your people would have not drifting in space with secondhand ships if they could just accepted the geth's sentiency," Dr. Phil informed her with a menacing tone.

Tali became enraged by his cold and venomous statement about her ancestors' past mistakes about the geth. What's more, the scientist even told her regarding her ancestors' _less intelligent _actions and she knew that those two words could also mean "stupid", "idiot" or "dolt".

"I have a shotgun, you know?" Tali try to threaten him so he could take back those words.

The hot tempered chief scientist of the Arcturus Advance Research Division doesn't seem threatened by Tali's intimidation. "And I have an omni-tool which can easily capable of hacking your enviro-suit and use them to incinerate your body from inside in less than two seconds. Dare to try who's the fastest one to draw?" Dr. Phil threatened her back very firmly.

Tali was ambivalent whether she should take those threat from him seriously or not. While she was thinking on what to do next, she saw Imran, the N5 operative, signaled her from behind Dr. Phil. He shook his head quickly left to right and vice versa, gestured her not to further escalate the conflict between both of them. Imran then used his head to point to the still-unconscious Jack and she set her eyes a little towards the ex-convict without moving her head. She quickly turned her eyes towards Imran and he mouthed some words which means "He could do worse".

Tali then hindsighted the time where Dr. Phil gave an elbow to Jack, where he had said about an omni-tool that can burn her from within the suit and Imran's warning. After she had set all the pieces together, she had discovered one crucial point; Dr. Ernest Phil was not the type of person you want to be mess with, even though she had survived from multiple missions that always involved a crossfire with the geth. She had no choice but to give in from the contention.

"Alright, you win. And I'm sorry," Tali said almost reluctantly to him.

Dr. Phil seems complacent and his anger started to defuse after Tali had asked for an apology for 'realizing' the error that she had made earlier. "Apology accepted," he told.

"Okay," Dr. Phil quickly regained his normal posture and clapped both his hands once and held them together. "Anymore questions?" he asked everybody that was present in the room with his normal and confidence face back.

"Yes. What about those two fighters? Do you offhandedly give them to us without knowing that they will take a lot space from the Normandy's hangar deck?" Miranda quickly asked.

"Don't worry about it. The Paladins are small enough to accommodate inside the hangar deck as the spacecrafts' wings are foldable just like the F/A-I8 Hornet. You just have to park them on the deck floor, near the elevator door," Dr. Phil explained. "Anything else?"

"Uh…"

"Good." Dr. Phil quickly said, never gave some of them the chance to ask. He turned his head towards the AI, "Lydia, bring in the new armors and some 'new tools' along with a 'special gift' for our 'selected' guests."

"Yes, doc."

**TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 2**

* * *

><p><em><span>AUTHOR'S NOTE<span>_

_I am very sorry for all of you out there who had to wait for a long time. I had my story delayed due to schoolwork, assignments and chores. The story that I had planned to wrote for this chapter had turned out to be very long than I expected, so I had no choice but to break it into a two part chapter. Don't worry; there will be a lot actions and surprise for you all in the next chapter. _

_Furthermore, there is a good reason on why I chose the title "Charlie Charlie" for this chapter. It will be explained in the second part of the chapter._

_Other than that, I know that all of you (or some of you) had wondered and asked, "When is it that they will be carried to the Vandread universe?" The answer for this question is: Before Commander Shepard and the others were being carried to the Vandread universe, they had to undertake an important mission and fight against a dangerous enemy that will run the plot on how the Commander and the others as well as the Normandy had got themselves in an alternate universe. _

_Moreover, I had tried my best to find some beta readers to help me with my story but all of them had said; "Sorry, I don't have the confidence", "Sorry, I don't do Vandread", and "Sorry, I had only recently played Mass Effect, not Mass Effect 2". So I had no choice but to write them myself. If you guys know any good or the most appropriate beta reader in FanFiction, let me know okay? _

_The next part of the chapter will complete one of the essential plots for this story. __**I PROMISE! I HAVE NO INTENTION TO POSTPONE THIS STORY!**_

_(__*****__)Here are some concept techs and weapons that I've envisioned for this story. You can check my bio to if you want know further detail about the SM series firearms._

_1. SM-20 Baneblade Assault Rifle__ - _

_http:/zxcv1911. deviantart. com/art/New-Mass-Effect-Assault-Rifle-215023571?q=gallery%3Azxcv1911&qo=1_

_2. SM-30 Warhammer Shotgun__ -_

_http:/zxcv1911. deviantart. com/art/New-Mass-Effect-Shotgun 217295090?q=gallery%3Azxcv1911&qo=0_

_3. SM-101 Longsword Sniper Rifle__ –_

_http:/fc02. deviantart. net/fs22/f/2008/021/2/3/Clan_Arena_Sniper_concept01_by_jimsvanberg. jpg_

_4. SM-10 Kukri Heavy Pistol__ – _

_http:/aliens. humlak. cz/aliens/aliens_papirove_modely/bonus_models/lawgiver/lawgivermodel01. jpg_

_5. SM-13 Saber Submachine Gun__ – _

_http:/arenovalis. deviantart. com/art/MP7-56089259?q=boost%3Apopular%20mp7&qo=14_

_6. SM-888 Ravager Minigun__ – _

_Concept picture: http:/www. imfdb. org/w/images/thumb/5/56/Minigun_/400px-Minigun_2. JPG_

_Website: http:/www. imfdb. org/wiki/GE_M134_Minigun_

_7. Imran Zakaria's armor__ – _

_http:/madeinjapan1988 .deviantart .com/gallery/#/d3fwzv4 [the blue one is Imran's while the orange one is the THOR mech]_

_8. SF-363 Paladin__ –_

Concept picture: _http:/www. goodsmile. info/cgm/ecommerce/goodsmile/images/large/. jpg_

Website: _http:/www. goodsmile. info/product/en/512/Vic+Viper+Gradius+4+Ver. html_

9_. PEWTER (Plasma Energy Window Technology Extreme Resistant) System – _

_Plasma shields__: http:/orbitalvector. com/Defenses/Plasma%20Shields/PLASMA%20SHIELDS. Htm_

_Flash shields__: http:/forums. spacebattles. ?p=5715135_

* * *

><p><strong>This is the trailer or preview for the next chapter<strong>:

"Damn it sir, they're all over the place!" Ashley exclaimed while shot three to six husks that were charging towards her with the Baneblade.

"I KNOW!" Imran shouted in respond while shot four other charging husks with his Baneblade along with gave a Heavy Biotic Warp to another husk right next to the bullet-holed and dead husks. Another seven to nine husks suddenly appeared from the right side of the snowy field. He quickly activated his omni-tool and gave the husks his Heavy Electric Shock attack. All of the clustered husks are quickly stunned and screamed in pain as the high-voltage electrical surge attack travelled through their synthetic bodies.

Jane used this opportunity to unleashed her Heavy Biotic Storm towards the now-stunned clustered husks, hurled them away to a distance while ripped their bodies apart into hundreds, if not, thousands of pieces.

As Liara tries to fend off several husks that came from behind of the inoperable Citadel ground vehicles by giving several bursts of bullets from her M-4 Shuriken, she quickly launches her Heavy Singularity towards the approaching husks. The dark energy sphere created an intense mass effect field that also creates a gravity well akin of a black hole, causing the husks to drawn into the mini black hole and held into orbit.

"John!" Liara called the N7 Commander who was still busy firing his Baneblade towards some husks. He quickly responded to the asari's call, twirled his body towards her and saw the husks that were helplessly held in orbit by her Heavy Singularity. John then quickly fired a Heavy Concussive Blast from the rifle's munitions launcher towards the orbiting husks and the high-energy explosion with a force of 450 newtons causing all the synthetic zombies turned into several chunks of flesh and body parts that flew all over the place.

* * *

><p>The others cannot maintain their positions any longer as hundreds of husks had surrounded the whole major dig site, 250 meters from their position with nowhere to run as their only hope to enter the underground Prothean facility have been blocked by a closed main blast door. "Damn it!" John spat in disgust as the whole situation had became worst to him and his team in a way that he could not possibly imagined.<p>

The husks cries off a scream that almost came out from an old Earth zombie film titled _28 Days Later_ and all hundreds of husks started to charge directly at John and his team. With the Normandy and the Paladins had been busied themselves to survive an ambush carried out by the batarians on the orbit of Articon along with the main blast door was closed very tightly, he and the others had a brief thought that their high hopes to survive in every mission, no matter how dangerous or how slim the chances are, had faded or taken in an unfairly way, except for Grunt who was gotten thrilled to have another finest fight that he ever had since the suicide mission.

"Almost reminds me of Elysium," John said to himself with a slightly nervous smile.

Jane turned her face towards her brother, "But it definitely not as same as this, is it?" she said with a slight glee.

"Sometimes I hate you when you're correct," John replied while gave the Alliance Vanguard a slight frown from his face.

As the husks were on the way to the group's position, everybody raised and aimed their weapons at any of the approaching husks on their sight, prepared themselves to face these husks for a "Last Stand on Articon" or "Shepard's Last Stand" (which kind of inappropriate as John and his team always survive against all odds just like these).

All of a sudden, an unknown figure appeared from above the main blast door in a seemingly thick sleeveless overcoat with black fabric where both of the figure's arms had large battleship grey-colored shoulder guards and gauntlets which hinted that he wore a heavy combat hard-suits under the overcoat along with the figure's head was covered with the coat's hood. The unknown figure also armed with a Scimitar shotgun that was placed behind his waist, a Tempest SMG on his right waist and a large collapsed weapon that was placed vertically on the center of his upper back. He had appeared right below John and his team where they didn't seem had noticed the figure was present above their heads as they only focused on the husks that were in front of them. When the figure saw the husks are headed toward the team below, he lifted his right arm and on his hand is a small device which looked like a detonator.

_(A/N: The unknown figure's overcoat is similar to the Helghast Rifleman uniform in the Killzone series, only that it is sleeveless.)_

He pushed the detonator's button and immediately, a series of large and bright orange-yellow explosions had juddered the whole surface around the team's place, thereby caused some of them to lost their balance. The resulted explosions had killed hundreds of husks in an instant, reduced only by tens of them left. The figure, which seems had been filled by enthusiasm by the outcome that happened in front of him, started to yell:

"YEAH! GET SOME!"

* * *

><p><strong>PART 2, HERE I COME!<strong>


	5. The Preview

_Author's Note: Attention to all readers, from this point I will not continue to write this story for time being until December because I have to concentrate on my studies for the most important exam in my life that will determine the direction of my future. _

_But that does not mean I have the intention to abandon this story. I will continue to update once I've finished my examination. To show you all about how serious I am when it comes to promise, update and continuity of this story, here is the preview of the next chapter "Charlie Charlie Part II". _

_**BE WARNED, SOME OF THE PREVIEWS BELOW CONTAIN SOME SIGNIFICANT SPOILERS. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.**_

* * *

><p>"One last thing, Miss vas Normandy. If I ever caught you or heard you showing a brazen attitude toward Lydia and other AIs in this station and try to compare them with HAL 9000, GLaDOS, SHODAN or Skynet, I swear that I will personally give you a first <em>taste <em>of Necrotizing Fasciitis to your fragile, immunodeficient dextro body. Do you make myself clear?" Dr. Phil warned her.

At this point, Tali became very frightened at the AARD's chief scientist's warning or threat if she wanted to interpret them in the other way around. From the look of his face and tone, Dr. Phil looked very serious in deliver the quarian girl a _proper_ warning or threat when talk about AIs in the matter. But when Dr. Phil had told Tali about "give a first of _taste_ of Necrotizing Fasciitis", she and the others (save a few) didn't know what kind of name of a thing that he had said to her. Whatever it was, it's name sounded very terrifying to her and other people in the room.

Dr. Phil noticed their nescience when he started to look at the others' faces. He then told the Mordin, "Professor, would you be so kind to enlighten our ignorant friends here about what I've said earlier? You know, the Necrotizing Fasciitis part?"

"Of course. Come near, I'll show you," Mordin instructed the people near the salarian scientist: Kasumi, Garrus, Jacob and Ashley, to came near him from both beside of his shoulders. Mordin activated his omni-tool and a rectangular-shaped holographic screen suddenly appeared from it. He then quickly tapping his fingers to the omni-tool's keys and a picture came out. It depicted three cell-like microorganisms in microscopic level which were looked like a cucumber covered with hair and three long tails that extend out from the body, almost like the tail of a sperm cell.

"This is the look of the Necrotizing Fasciitis bacteria," Mordin informed them. "And this is what will happen on the organic tissue," he added then started to tapping some keys on his omni-tool and several images began to appear on the screen. What they'd saw at the screen truly had shaken them into their very soul.

"WHOA!"

* * *

><p>"Sir, can I please ask your permission to bring Jeffry onboard your ship? There's no one else on the station that are willingly to take good care of him," Imran asked the human Spectre as if in an appealing way.<p>

"Jeffry? Who's Jeffry?" John asked. From what he heard and understand from Imran's words, he said as if he wanted to bring in some kind of a pet animal. Which was no surprise for the Commander because he had a pet hamster inside his Captain's Cabin which he had bought it from one of the shops on the Citadel after he had resolved of Garrus's revenge on Sidonis but in the end, Garrus let him go after he had learnt the truth from his former squad mate through John's actions.

"Well…, Jeffry is my…is my…," Imran sounded hesitant and worried to say something from his mouth.

"Come on, Imran. Straight to the point, it's not like I'm gonna eat ya." John asked with a smirk.

"Alright," the N5 operative exhaled slowly. "Jeffry is my Brachypelma smithi," he quickly finished his sentence.

"Jeffry is a WHAT?"

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><p>John didn't know how the albino batarian would reacted to him due to the Bahak Incident that had occurred several days ago if he told his true identity to him as he seems didn't realized who's the human in front of him. But in order to make sure he and his team was not the true enemy, he then introduced himself.<p>

"My name is Commander John Shepard of the Alliance Special Forces and the Citadel Council's Spectre."

The albino batarian had his eyes wide open in shock after he heard his name very clearly and started to speechless. In a couple of seconds, he started to spoke.

"Co…Commander Shepard?" he asked with a gasp in his voice and John nodded his head with truth. After the batarian got the validation from the human Spectre, his face began to change slowly from a surprised look to an ecstatic one and smiled with a wide grin as if he just met the most revered person in his life.

"OH MAN! IT'S AN HONOR TO MEET YOU, DUDE!" the albino batarian exclaimed in full excitement and began to wrap both of his arms around his body tightly and lifted the human Spectre off the ground, or you can say he gave John a bear hug.

"Whoa, easy there!" John said with a shock in his tone.

Everybody was totally surprised from their savior's sudden action towards their Commander, who had saved the whole team recently from being killed by hundreds of husks. Instead of becoming very angry and odious to John who they had predicted that it will happen, he hugged him with his feelings full of joy and delighted. The albino batarian finally put John's feet on the ground.

"The name's Daneck Barithias but you can call me Dan or Danny! Former Batarian Hegemony's Special Intervention Unit, the best damn explosive expert in the whole galaxy! Ready to serve under your order and ready blow your foes into chunks and pieces, Sir!" Daneck stood upright and gave John a perfect human military salute with a wide grin along with showing his razor-sharp teeth to everybody.

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><p><em>There you go! I'm sorry that I cannot update this story for a long time. But I promise I will continue this update once I've finished my exam this November. See you guys later! :D<em>


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